Key Takeaways

• TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies list includes two crypto firms: Coinbase and Digital Currency Group (DCG).
• It chose those two companies due to the “extraordinary impact” that each has made in the business world.
• TIME has previously taken interest in cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

TIME Magazine has listed Coinbase and Digital Currency Group (DCG) among its 100 Most Influential Companies of 2021.
Two Crypto Companies In Top 100
TIME chose to include Coinbase and Digital Currency Group in its list of influential companies due to the “extraordinary impact” that each has had on the business and crypto worlds.
“It’s been a huge year for cryptocurrencies, but nothing’s been as validating as the April 14 direct listing of Coinbase, which operates an exchange where 56 million users buy and sell Bitcoin and more,” TIME wrote in its analysis of the company.
Founded in 2012, Coinbase is the second largest exchange by trading volume. It allows retail customers to purchase cryptocurrencies securely. Recently, it listed shares on NASDAQ and crossed a valuation of over $100 billion.

Meanwhile, Digital Currency Group has made strides on the institutional front. DCG’s Grayscale Trust Fund has helped institutions and corporations put billions of dollars into investment vehicles backed by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
“In January 2020, Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust became the first financial product backed entirely by digital currency to report to the Securities and Exchange Commission—opening the trust (and, by extension, the blockchain) to more potential investors,” the magazine explained.
The two crypto companies were listed alongside other notable firms such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Huawei, Mastercard, Netflix, Microsoft,Tesla, Twitter, and Zoom.
The TIME 100 List
TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies is an expansion of its annual TIME 100 list, which includes firms from sectors such as technology, healthcare, transportation, finance, and more.

TIME editors had good reason to add two of the most valuable cryptocurrency firms to its list of influential companies. In the first three months of 2021 alone, the cryptocurrency sector has doubled its market capitalization and crossed the $2 trillion mark.
TIME has also taken interest in cryptocurrency in a more direct way. In recent months, it has chosen to accept crypto as payment, create its own NFT tokens, and make an investment in Bitcoin.
At the time of writing this author held Cosmos.