On April 10, the information platform Fortune Crypto released its Crypto 40 ranking of leading cryptocurrency companies aimed to be "a definitive list of the most important crypto companies." Fortune selected the five best Web3 companies in eight different categories based on its own analysis as well as opinions from the crypto community.
Crypto 40 was planned as an objective ranking. Fortune's team has emphasized in its article that this list of the most influential crypto companies is one-of-a-kind. "While there are plenty of lists, nearly all of them reflect the subjective preference of a handful of editors, and most focus on personalities rather than companies," Fortune wrote in its description of the ranking.
The prominent Web 3 projects listed by Fortune Crypto were grouped by specializations, including categories such as blockchain protocol firms, data, and analytics firms, infrastructure firms, venture capital companies, businesses focused on NFTs, TradFi, DeFi as well as CeFi companies. Each category included five of the most prominent companies.
Mostly, the results of the analysis conducted by Fortune Crypto were fairly predictable. For example, Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken, the leading crypto exchange platforms, reached the top of the list of centralized financial companies.
Yet, there were unexpected findings too. One of them was the choice of the best blockchain protocol, which turned out to be Ethereum and not Bitcoin, as many may believe. The Bitcoin network also scored lower in terms of its infrastructure characteristics, coming in behind Ledger and Genesis Digital Assets.
All five companies placed under the DeFi category are powered by Ethereum, making this protocol the winner once again. The DeFi companies that did so well were Uniswap Labs, Lido, MakerDAO, Aave, and Curve.
The list of the best companies specializing in blockchain analytics is topped by Chainalysis, followed by CoinMetrics, The Graph, Dune, and Team Messi.
Read also: A beginners guide to Blur, OpenSea emerging rival
In addition, OpenSea is currently the number one NFT company according to Crypto 40. This point is pretty curious considering the severe rivalry between the new NFT trading platform Blur and OpenSea, which had dominated the industry before the emergence of its strong competitor. Although Blur's generous token airdrops and favorable trading conditions drew much attention to the platform, particularly during the winter, leading to its temporary victory over OpenSea, the situation is constantly changing.
In fact, OpenSea was the only marketplace on the list of NFT companies. Others included prominent NFT maker Yuga Labs, blockchain game developer Sky Mavis, generative art platform Art Blocks, and digital collectibles maker RTFKT.
Fortune's ranking also named PayPal, Robinhood, J.P. Morgan, Fidelity Investments, and Visa as the most influential TradFi companies "whose primary business is non-crypto, but that have made a name in blockchain."
Polychain, Animoca Brands, at6z, Pantera Capital, and Blockchain Capital were reported by Fortune as the best crypto venture capital investment companies.
As per the latest statistics from NFT marketplace analyst Sea Launch posted on Dune, Blur remains the absolute leader when it comes to trading volume, surpassing OpenSea's volume almost three times. For instance, Blur's volume yesterday was 14,107 ETH compared to OpenSea's 4,899 ETH. Even if the volume is calculated for both OpenSea and OpenSea Pro, the new Gem-powered platform for advanced traders, it is still less than 7,000 ETH, twice the volume of Blur.
At the same time, OpenSea significantly outperforms Blur when it comes to the number of sales and unique users.
Read also: OpenSea launches advanced NFT marketplace powered by Gem
Obviously, this year Fortune has included already established companies on its list this year. However, the magazine plans to pay more attention to new Web3 companies in the future, allowing such projects to "disrupt and grab the crowns of complacent incumbents."
In the meantime, some members of the crypto community have questioned the objectivity and trustworthiness of Fortune's findings. Others wonder why other influential companies like MetaMask did not make it to Fortune Crypto's list.
