Forbes 30 under 30 spotlights minds shaping crypto’s hype

The 2024 Forbes 30 Under 30 list features young crypto founders creating platforms for finance, trading, and prediction markets, even with regulatory challenges.

Forbes has unveiled its latest “30 Under 30” list for finance, revealing a new generation of innovators in fintech and crypto. Among the honorees are blockchain entrepreneurs reshaping financial markets while navigating both successes and regulatory challenges. Crypto.news retells their journeys.

Shayne Coplan: Betting big with crypto

At just 26 years old, Shayne Coplan is the mastermind behind Polymarket, a blockchain-based prediction market that has processed billions of dollars in transactions this year alone, per data from Dune Analytics. The platform lets users bet on the outcomes of real-world events, like elections, sports games, or even extreme scenarios like nuclear weapon detonation.

However, Polymarket didn’t achieve instant recognition or success. Launched in 2020, it took four years and tens of millions in funding from such backers as Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Ethereum co-creator Vitalik Buterin for the platform to gain recognition.

The turning point came during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, when its prediction markets signaled Donald Trump’s surprising victory.

However, Polymarket hasn’t escaped controversy. Following allegations that the platform allowed U.S. users to bet illegally, the FBI raided Coplan’s residence just days after the election, reportedly seizing devices. This came despite Polymarket’s 2022 settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where it paid $1.4 million in fines and agreed to bar U.S. users from using its platform.

A spokesperson for Polymarket has hinted that the raid might have been politically motivated, though no charges have been filed to date, Forbes notes. Despite the scrutiny, Polymarket remains a pioneer in crowd-driven forecasting, showcasing the untapped potential of blockchain in creating decentralized markets.

Cindy Leow: Perpetual trading powerhouse

Cindy Leow, 27, is another rising star in crypto, transforming markets when she co-founded Drift in 2021, a Solana-based crypto exchange specializing in perpetuals — derivatives allowing traders to speculate on price movements without owning the underlying asset.

Backed by investors like Polychain Capital and Multicoin Capital, Drift — which facilitated billions in trading volume — Leow raised $42 million in funding for Drift, which she has parlayed into serious crypto clout. This year, Drift recorded $40 million in revenue and grew its user base to over 200,000, Forbes reports.

Prior to Drift, Leow co-founded a $30 million quantitative hedge fund and worked at Softbank Ventures Korea, an early-stage venture capital arm of SoftBank Group. Despite its ambitious goals, the Solana-powered crypto exchange operates in a fiercely competitive market, facing ongoing regulatory scrutiny and challenges surrounding derivatives trading.

Kaledora Kiernan-Linn: From ballet to blockchain

At 28, Kaledora Kiernan-Linn has shifted her focus to new ventures. After a career as a professional ballet dancer, she graduated from Harvard with a neuroscience degree and co-founded Ostium Labs, the team behind the Ostium protocol, the first decentralized perpetuals exchange purpose-engineered for real-world assets.

Alongside co-founder Marco Ribiero, Kiernan-Linn aims to integrate blockchain’s transparency with traditional commodity trading and financial indices.

The final goal: to bridge decentralized technology and global finance. While still in its early stages, the startup secured $3.5 million in funding from such investors as General Catalyst, LocalGlobe, SIG, and Balaji Srinivasan, among others.

The bigger picture

The rising stars show how crypto is evolving beyond just being a speculative investment. Platforms like Polymarket and Drift show that blockchain technology is now at a point where it can seriously change markets and help manage risks. At the same time, Ostium Labs is demonstrating how blockchain can transform industries like commodities and global finance.

However, these innovations haven’t come without challenges. From legal issues to technical difficulties, the entrepreneurs on Forbes’s list are dealing with a world full of risks. Polymarket’s legal problems, for example, highlight the difficult balance between pushing new ideas and following regulations, while Drift’s focus on derivatives is getting a lot of attention in a market that is still figuring out its rules.

The road ahead

As these young innovators push the limits, the future won’t be easy. The successes of Coplan, Leow, and Kiernan-Linn clearly show the potential of crypto to change the financial world. However, their stories also remind that the web3 industry is still in its early stages, especially when it comes to getting clear rules and regulations.

Forbes says the winners were chosen from over 600 nominations and judged by four experts: Chris Britt, co-founder and CEO of neobank Chime; Marc Lasry, co-founder and CEO of Avenue Capital Group; Laura Spiekerman, co-founder of Alloy; and Nikil Viswanathan, co-founder of Alchemy, a blockchain infrastructure firm.