Oh, the wild western of digital finance. Let’s get on our horses and explore the territory of the best largest crypto companies globally. Their names are probably whispered around in saloons. Perhaps you have seen their logos flashing as brightly on your monitor as a Sheriff’s badge. These aren’t simply any companies. They’re the behemoths responsible for keeping the coins in our virtual wallets.
First up, we’ve got Coinbase. Imagine 2012: Two guys decide that Bitcoin purchases should be as simple as ordering pizza on the internet. It’s now today. Coinbase has become the pizza parlor for cryptocurrencies, without the risk of a soggy dough. The platform made it so easy for anyone to dip a toe into the crypto water without worrying about getting bitten by a shark.
Binance is the other crypto exchange. It sounds like it would be a French dessert. But, in reality, Binance has become a success faster than you could say “blockchain.” Binance is a crypto exchange that was launched in 2017 and run by CZ. (I think it stands for Crypto Zeus.) Binance allowed traders to trade coins as if they were trading baseball cards at school.
Bitmain is a name that comes to mind when we talk about cryptocurrency. Imagine if Bitcoin were the equivalent of gold and you required super-duper strong shovels to mine that digital gold. Bitmain makes the shovels. Jihan Wu founded Bitmain, which is a company that makes machines to mine Bitcoin. It’s almost like hitting gold every time.
RippleLabs Inc. has made it cool to be nice to banks. Ripple aims to make money transfers as easy as an email. Zip, zap – your cash has flown faster than espresso and a homing duck. They have run into legal issues over whether or not their XRP token is following the rules.
Kraken. No, it’s not a sea-monster. But it could be because it has taken the high seas cryptocurrency exchanges in 2011 with gusto. Jesse Powell observed what happened when some exchanges went bankrupt (looking to you Mt.Gox), saying “Not my watch.” Kraken is now Fort Knox, if Fort Knox were armed with tentacles.
The motley crew of innovators is here to ensure that we are not swindled, or lost on the seas by regulatory storms. Each story has its own triumphs as well as trials. These stories prove that, in an industry that is built on one-digit numbers, we are still fascinated by human stories.
Remember, navigating this water takes more that just knowing where X stands on a pirate map. It requires savvy and guts. And maybe a parakeet on your back, squawking nonsense. It doesn’t matter which way you go, just keep your mind on you. In this digital world, fortunes will be made and lost as quickly as you can utter the word “crypto.”