Although the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the global economy, 2021 remains an important year for the world of fintech.
Here are three entrepreneurs to watch out for this year, as they continue to make waves and pilot change in this area …
Nick Spanos

(Photo: Nick Spanos)
Nick Spanos is one of the most well-known investors and innovators in the blockchain and crypto world. In 2013, he made headlines when he founded Bitcoin Center NYC – the first cryptocurrency trading floor – just across from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in the Lower Manhattan financial district.
He is also the CEO of Blockchain Technologies Corp., which holds multiple blockchain patents for blockchain voting and VoteWatcher, the world’s first blockchain-based voting platform, and is working on many other projects that enhance blockchain’s real-life applications.
One of Spanos’ interesting and potentially disruptive projects is ZAP, which he co-founded in 2017. ZAP is essentially a marketplace and tool that allows developers to build and launch decentralized applications (Dapps) and smart contract which makes use of real-world data and events to trigger the aforementioned contracts.
He’s also been featured in a Netflix documentary about Bitcoin, and he’s spoken at dozens of different blockchain shows in the US and far beyond.
Ben-Ezer Barracks

(Photo: Ben-Ezer Barracks)
Next, there is Barak Ben-Ezer, CEO of digital banking applications Grace. He is also the man behind SOV, the blockchain-based currency which, according to a bill passed in February 2018, is the new legal tender in the Marshall Islands. This makes SOV unique and fundamentally different from Bitcoin and other stablecoins and altcoins.
The main difference between SOV and traditional fiat currencies is the fact that the first rate of supply growth is algorithmically fixed at four percent per year, at which point for fiat, the government or central bank can increase the money supply as much as they want, potentially. leading to a high rate of inflation.
Additionally, Ben-Ezer won the Geektime Award in 2014 and previously served as the co-founder and co-CEO of Libra Trade – a popular FOREX and options trading platform.
Soravis Srinawakoon

(Photo: Soravis Srinawakoon)
Lastly, we have the CEO & co-founder of Band Protocol, Soravis Srinawakoon.
The permissionless blockchain protocol, which is supported by the likes of Sequoia Capital and Binance Labs, works in a similar way to the ZAP Spanos platform, as it connects blockchain applications with real-world data and transactions.
Prior to launching Band Protocol, Srinawakoon worked as a software engineer at Ericcson before becoming a teaching assistant at Stanford University, where he graduated in 2013.
Srinawakoon, from Forbes Asia 30 Under 30, also founded Better Off, a charity that builds libraries for children’s use in rural Thailand.
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