Key takeaways:
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Power in crypto has shifted from traditional players to five forces driving onchain finance and control.
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These forces are stablecoins, ETFs, base-layer upgrades, blockspace security and high-throughput execution.
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Traditional gatekeepers like exchanges and regulators now play a lesser role.
Power in crypto today revolves around five levers: dollar liquidity (stablecoins), capital markets (ETFs and tokenization), base-layer roadmaps, blockspace security markets and high-throughput execution.
Since 2024, the balance of influence has shifted away from the old “exchanges vs. regulators” dynamic to a new center of gravity.
Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) now funnel mainstream capital at scale. For example, IBIT by BlackRock alone holds about $85 billion in assets under management (AUM).
Stablecoins, meanwhile, have become the fastest dollar settlement rail and, after the introduction of the GENIUS Act, now operate under a federal framework in the US.
On the tech side, Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade (with Ethereum Improvement Proposal 7702) is reshaping wallet UX, Solana’s Firedancer client is approaching rollout, and EigenLayer has transformed staked Ether (ETH) into a rentable security market with live slashing. You can expect visible moves on each of these fronts in the months ahead.
How we defined “power” in our top five
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Direct control over capital flows or block space
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Ability to set and ship roadmaps others must follow
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Credible and announced next steps landing in the next few quarters.
1. Larry Fink (BlackRock)
BlackRock now controls the largest spot Bitcoin ETF and the most prominent institutional tokenized cash fund. IBIT leads the ETF pack by assets, while BUIDL turned tokenized Treasuries into a mainstream product for qualified investors, and it’s no longer tied to a single chain.
BlackRock has also signaled interest in broadening its crypto ETF lineup beyond BTC and ETH.
Power in practice
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IBIT: Around $85.4 billion in net assets (Aug. 20, 2025) — the de facto TradFi on-ramp that sets flows and fees across the segment.
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BUIDL: >$1 billion AUM (March 2025). No longer Ether-only — BlackRock and Securitize have rolled out new share classes, including on Solana (SOL), to expand distribution and composability.
What Larry Fink is planning next
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More crypto ETFs: BlackRock is weighing additional listings, subject to demand and regulatory approval.
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Deeper tokenization plumbing: Expect BUIDL and successors to integrate further with BlackRock’s Aladdin system (its portfolio and ops backbone) and push multichain access where counterparties need it.
One player at the center of ETF flows and tokenized cash can direct where liquidity concentrates and who captures the revenue on- and offchain.
Did you know? IBIT was the fastest ETF in history to hit $10 billion, reaching the mark in just 34 trading days after launch.
2. Paolo Ardoino (Tether)
Tether’s USDt (USDT) is the digital dollar that underpins most of crypto, powering centralized crypto exchanges, onchain markets and cross-border payments.
Tether’s scale gives Ardoino direct influence over the price and availability of dollar liquidity.
He has also been redeploying profits into hard infrastructure (Bitcoin mining, energy and privacy-focused AI), positioning Tether as a critical operator in the stack.
Power in practice
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USDT market cap: Around $167 billion (Aug. 21, 2025), the largest in crypto and the benchmark for onchain dollar liquidity.
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Energy and mining build-out: New Bitcoin mining data centers are underway, including a Brazil biogas project.
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US strategy push: Tether hired Bo Hines, formerly tied to the White House’s crypto advisory group, to shape its US posture.
What Paolo Ardoino is planning next
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Expanding its hard-asset footprint in energy and mining, plus building an AI/edge-compute stack for privacy-preserving services.
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Deepening payments and remittance flows, with a focus on emerging-market USD corridors where stablecoins already dominate.
When a single issuer controls most of the crypto-dollar supply, its reserve choices, compliance stance and infrastructure spending can move the whole market.
That shifts spreads, settlement times and which chains gain users. With new US stablecoin rules, scrutiny will rise even as demand for dollar stablecoins grows.
Did you know? In 2024, Tether was the seventh-largest net buyer of the US Treasurys, ahead of several countries.
3. Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum)
Ethereum’s May 2025 Pectra upgrade (now live) shipped EIP-7702, which lets regular externally owned accounts (EOAs) act like smart-contract accounts. This account-abstraction step cascades into wallets, layer 2s (L2s) and payments.
Pectra also raised validator limits, altering staking economics and node operations. Buterin’s influence (through writing, research and core-dev work) continues to shape what gets “enshrined” next.
Power in practice
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Pectra live: EIP-7702 allows EOAs to temporarily execute code (session keys, social…
cointelegraph.com