Most Influential: Michael Saylor

Last year, Michael Saylor, executive chairman of Strategy (MSTR), stood among the most influential figures in the bitcoin ecosystem. His company’s stock surged fivefold, even as U.S. bitcoin ETFs entered the market.

This feature is a part of CoinDesk's Most Influential 2025 list.

The story in 2025, however, has been markedly different. MSTR has struggled to replicate the prior year’s extraordinary gains, with shares now negative year-to-date. This underperformance reflects a mix of internal and external pressures, including bitcoin’s volatility compression and the introduction of options on U.S. spot ETFs, which have given investors alternative exposure routes. These factors have led to a significant contraction in MSTR’s multiple to net asset value (mNAV).

In response, Strategy launched four perpetual preferred products in 2025—STRK, STRF, STRD, and STRC—raising $4.6 billion in gross proceeds from IPOs. Three of these have already delivered strong double-digit returns, providing a non-dilutive mechanism for MSTR to expand its bitcoin holdings. The company has also extended its preferred share program internationally in Europe, with a Euro-denominated preferred stock, Stream.

• As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
• GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
• Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.

• Tether said it aims to take over popular Italian football club Juventus FC.
• The firm proposed to acquire Exor's 65.4% stake in an all-cash offer, and intends to make a public offer for the rest of the shares.
• Tether reported net profits exceeding $10 billion this year, while its flagship token USDT is the world's dominant stablecoin with a $186 billion market capitalization.

Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.