Forbes Financial New Power List: The Comeback Stories of Two Cryptocurrency Entrepreneurs

2025-12-02 12:00:20

The latest 2026 Financial New Power List just released by Forbes hides a few tough characters.

Among the 30 faces that emerged from nearly 800 candidates, 8 are from the crypto circle. The most eye-catching? It has to be Asta Li—she dual majored in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Computer Science at Cornell, and after being with Uber's autonomous driving team, she started Privy in 2021. What does this company do? It provides embedded cryptocurrency wallet solutions for businesses. Now serving over 1,000 clients, major players in the industry like Hyperliquid, Lightspark, and Blackbird are all using it, helping tens of millions of users manage their wallets. This year, it was directly acquired by Stripe.

Another tough guy named Giovanni Vignone dropped out of Duke University halfway to start a business, creating Octane. This thing specifically focuses on smart contract security, using AI to scan code for vulnerabilities in just one minute. Now it manages $5.8 billion in assets for 15 clients, including Circle, the issuer of USDC. It secured $11 million in its seed round.

Wallet infrastructure and contract security, two of the most hardcore tracks, young people have already made their mark.

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