If you spend any time in the crypto market, you quickly learn one thing: the right crypto trader to follow can save you years of mistakes. The best crypto traders don’t just post screenshots of wins. They explain risk, show how they think, and remind you that this is a volatile market where discipline matters more than luck.

This guide walks through top crypto traders, the biggest ever crypto trade, how successful traders build their strategies, and where they share their ideas.

Along the way, you’ll also see how a practical derivatives platform like Margex can fit into a trader’s toolkit without turning into a sales pitch.

For many traders, the first step is simply having an exchange where you can open an account in minutes.

Margex’s fast account setup is an example of how a trading platform can make entering the crypto space a bit less painful, especially when your attention is on learning, not paperwork.

Key Takeaways

  • There’s no single “best” crypto trader; lists mix exchange founders, hedge fund managers, long-term whales, and educators like CZ, Michael Saylor, Brian Armstrong, and the Winklevoss twins. 
  • Net worth and fame don’t equal day-trading skill. Many big crypto names built wealth through exchanges, stablecoins, and long-term holdings rather than constant short-term trades. 
  • One of the most famous trades came from patience, not scalping: a Bitcoin whale turned an early $54,000 stake into around $9–10 billion by selling about 80,000 BTC in July 2025. 
  • Top traders rely on data, blending technical analysis, fundamental research, and on-chain tools such as Glassnode and CryptoQuant to track flows, liquidity, and key market signals. 
  • You don’t need to copy anyone’s portfolio. The real value is learning how they manage risk, time entries, and size positions. Platforms like Margex aim to make this path easier for beginners while still offering more advanced tools as you grow. 

The Best Crypto Traders to Follow Right Now

When people search for the best crypto traders to follow, they often end up on similar names. These aren’t just Twitter personalities; they’re founders, investors, and early adopters whose decisions still move markets.

Here’s a quick tour of ten figures who frequently appear in rankings of best crypto traders and crypto investors.

1. Changpeng “CZ” Zhao

  • Who he is: Founder and former CEO of Binance, still widely seen as one of the most influential players among crypto. 
  • Why he matters: CZ famously sold his apartment for about 1,500 BTC in 2014 when the price of bitcoin was around $600, a move many called reckless at the time. Today, that decision is often described as one of the best crypto bets ever made. 
  • Net worth angle: Various lists regularly place Zhao near the top of crypto-billionaire rankings, with an estimated net worth in the tens of billions. 

He’s a reminder that conviction cuts both ways: the reward can be enormous, but so can the risk.

2. Michael Saylor

  • Who he is: Co-founder and executive chairman of Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), and one of the loudest Bitcoin bulls. 
  • Why he matters: Instead of trading in and out, Saylor built a strategy around holding BTC as a corporate treasury asset. Strategy now controls hundreds of thousands of BTC, and Saylor’s personal and corporate bets are central to every discussion about institutional adoption of digital currency. 
  • Net worth angle: His fortune swings with the price of bitcoin, and recent market moves have seen his wealth rise and fall by billions within months. 

He’s often cited among the best crypto traders when the focus is on long-term conviction, not short-term trading.

3. Brian Armstrong

  • Who he is: Armstrong, the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange.  
  • Why he matters: As a co-founder of a listed exchange with millions of users, he has a front-row seat on retail flows, regulation, and new product launches such as stablecoins and staking. 
  • Net worth: His net worth is tied to Coinbase’s share price and overall crypto market cycles, making him a barometer for how much traditional finance believes in the potential of cryptocurrencies. 

Armstrong is more executive than day-trader, but his decisions still affect how every small crypto trader can access markets.

4. The Winklevoss Twins (Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss)

  • Who they are: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss – early Bitcoin investors and founders of the Gemini exchange. 
  • Why they matter: The Winklevoss twins invested part of their Facebook settlement into BTC and later co-founded Gemini, now known for its security and compliance focus in the crypto industry.

Their story shows how entering the crypto world early, then building infrastructure around it, can turn you into a millionaire many times over.

5. Giancarlo Devasini

  • Who he is: Co-founder of Tether and longtime CFO (now chairman) of Bitfinex, a major derivatives exchange. 
  • Why he matters: Devasini helped create USDT, the largest stablecoin, and has overseen Bitfinex’s growth. Tether now sits at the center of global liquidity, with its tokens used in four out of five crypto transactions in some estimates. 
  • Net worth: With a large Tether stake, he is regularly described as one of the wealthiest figures in the crypto industry.

He’s an example of how stablecoins and infrastructure can quietly generate massive fortunes.

6. Barry Silbert

  • Who he is: Founder of Digital Currency Group, the parent of Grayscale, Genesis, and other major crypto companies. 
  • Why he matters: Silbert manages a portfolio of equity stakes and tokens across exchanges, lenders, and DeFi protocols. When he moves, whole sectors feel it.

Silbert is often listed as one of the most popular institutional-level crypto investors.

7. Mike Novogratz

  • Who he is: Ex-hedge-fund manager and CEO of Galaxy Digital. 
  • Why he matters: Novogratz is known for candid public commentary on BTC, ETH, and altcoins. He speaks openly about risk, leverage, and macro trend shifts, making him a useful voice for understanding how professional traders view crypto as part of a wider portfolio.

He represents the bridge between Wall Street and Web3.

8. Vitalik Buterin

  • Who he is: Co-founder of Ethereum, often seen as the intellectual heart of the web3 movement. 
  • Why he matters: While not a day-trader, Vitalik’s posts on scaling, decentralization, and protocol design influence the value of ETH and the broader blockchain ecosystem. When he talks about DeFi risk or governance, the crypto space listens.

He’s proof that not every top crypto trader spends all day on charts; some shape the rules of the game itself.

9. Glauber Contessoto – the Dogecoin “Millionaire”

  • Who he is: Retail trader who went viral for turning around $188,000 into over $3 million on Dogecoin during the 2021 meme-coin mania. 
  • Why he matters: His story shows both the upside and downside of extreme speculation. By holding too long, he later saw huge drawdowns, highlighting the thin line between meme-coin hero and bag-holder.

He’s a cautionary example of success in crypto trading that came almost entirely from timing and meme momentum.

10. Anonymous On-Chain Whales

  • Who they are: The list of famous crypto traders now includes fully anonymous addresses. Webopedia’s profile of a “prodigy volume trader” who turned $6,800 into $1.5 million in a few months is one example. 
  • Why they matter: Platforms like Whale Alert, CryptoQuant, and similar analytics dashboards track large, real-time transfers, letting you see how these whales position in BTC, ETH, and other tokens.

These popular crypto traders remind you that, on-chain, performance speaks louder than branding.

If you want to study and learn from these traders without blindly copying them, a platform with copy-trading options can help.

Margex lets you mirror selected strategies at your own size, so you can see how live trades behave without committing your whole account to someone else’s decisions. It’s a tool, not a shortcut.

That’s the current landscape of people often ranked as top crypto traders and investors.

What Was the Biggest Ever Crypto Trade?

Pinning down a single “biggest ever” crypto trade is tricky. Crypto markets are global, opaque, and full of OTC deals the public never sees. But we can look at a few moves that are widely described as one of the biggest crypto trades in history.

The 80,000 BTC Whale Exit

In July 2025, on-chain sleuths spotted a whale moving around 80,000 BTC that had been holding Bitcoin for roughly 14 years.

The stash, originally bought for around $54,000 in total, was moved and reportedly sold for roughly $9–10 billion, turning a modest early bet into a life-changing fortune.

That single transaction shows what long-term conviction in BTC can do over time, especially for someone who nailed their entry points and simply refused to sell during crashes.

CZ’s 1,500 BTC Apartment Bet

CZ’s apartment sale from 2014 is another iconic trade. He swapped real estate for about 1,500 BTC at around $600 each, worth under $1 million at the time. Today, that same position has been valued in the 10 million-plus range many times over, depending on the price of Bitcoin.

This trade didn’t rely on complex trading tools. It was a simple, all-in bet on the long-term potential of cryptocurrencies.

Stablecoin and Bitfinex Power Plays

Behind the scenes, figures like Giancarlo Devasini helped engineer one of the most impactful positions in crypto: the Tether USDT stablecoin and its link to Bitfinex.

His early decision to launch a dollar-pegged token and tie it to exchange infrastructure effectively gave him huge influence over liquidity across crypto markets.

Here the “trade” is not one position, but building a system that earns from every trade.

When you see people turn early stakes into billions, it’s tempting to chase the next 100x. Derivatives platforms offering up to 100x leverage can amplify both gains and losses.

On Margex, that level of leverage is available, but it’s optional – and for most people, using small, sensible leverage is far healthier than trying to recreate whale-level bets overnight.

These stories are dramatic, but they’re also rare. Most crypto traders never see anything like this scale, and that’s fine.

How Top Crypto Traders Build Their Strategies

Behind every headline about a whale or billionaire trader is something less glamorous: a process.

Professional and successful crypto traders tend to combine a few pillars:

1. Risk First, Profit Second

Serious traders obsess over downside. They size positions so that even a string of losing trades doesn’t wipe their wallet or portfolio. That might mean risking 1–2% of capital per trade, using stop-losses, or capping daily loss limits.

This is how they stay alive long enough to benefit from big trend moves.

2. Technical and Fundamental Work

Many pros blend chart work with research:

  • Technical analysis: Chart patterns, support and resistance, volatility bands, and indicators like RSI or moving averages. Tools like CryptoRank and other charting suites show how traders use these signals to time entries. 
  • Fundamental research: Studying the project’s team, tokenomics, and role in DeFi or web3 ecosystems. 
  • On-chain data: Platforms such as Glassnode and CryptoQuant show wallet inflows, miner behavior, and network activity in real-time, helping traders spot accumulation or distribution. 

Here, analytics are less about predicting the future and more about stacking small edges.

3. Understanding Liquidity and Market Structure

Top crypto traders care deeply about order-book depth, spread, and how quickly large orders move the market. Whale Alert, Coinglass, and other dashboards show big transactions, giving clues about where big money sits.

This helps them avoid thin markets where a single order can slip badly, and instead focus on pairs with solid liquidity, such as BTC/USDT, ETH/USDT, and major stablecoin pairs.

4. Strategy Mix: From HODL to Active Trading

Few pros do just one thing. A typical crypto trader might:

  • Hold bitcoin and ethereum long term as core positions. 
  • Rotate smaller tokens in DeFi or gaming as side bets. 
  • Use futures for hedging or short-term swings.

Some of them think in “buckets”: a long-term holding bucket and an active trading bucket.

Managing multiple buckets on one platform is easier with a cross-margin system. On Margex, cross-margin lets profits from one position help buffer losses in another within the same account balance, as long as you understand the risks.

For a disciplined crypto trader, that can make risk management smoother than juggling several isolated sub-accounts.

At heart, success here means having rules, then following them when the crypto market gets loud.

Where the Best Crypto Traders Share Their Insights

You don’t have to guess what these people think. Many of the top crypto traders share parts of their process in public, often breaking down complex topics so everyday users can follow along.

1. X (Twitter), Telegram, and Discord

  • Crypto Twitter is still the main arena. Lists of leading crypto influencers highlight accounts like Balaji Srinivasan, Erik Voorhees, and others who comment on markets, regulation, and blockchain trends.
  • Telegram and Discord groups host real-time chats, trading journals, and community strategies.

This is where you see raw sentiment and how traders use news.

2. YouTube and Long-Form Content

YouTube is full of famous crypto traders and educators who stream live chart sessions, portfolio reviews, and explainers. Round-ups of one of the most popular crypto channels include macro voices, DeFi specialists, and on-chain analysts.

Good creators focus on breaking down complex topics – explaining why a certain altcoin is strong in DeFi, or how to read futures funding rates – rather than just shouting price targets.

3. On-Chain Dashboards and Data Platforms

Some of the best insights don’t come from human voices at all, but from dashboards:

  • Glassnode and CryptoQuant show network metrics, exchange flows, and derivatives data.
  • Bubblemaps and similar tools visualize token transactions and wallet clusters, helping users spot concentration and adoption patterns in new coins.

These tools sit in the background of most serious crypto trading rooms.

A lot of this content is consumed on the go. A mobile-friendly platform like Margex makes it easier to connect what you see on X or YouTube with actual positions in your account, without having to wait until you’re back at a desk.

FAQs

Who is the best crypto trader?

There’s no single “best” trader. Changpeng Zhao stands out for Binance’s rise, Michael Saylor for his long-term Bitcoin vision, and the Winklevoss twins or Brian Armstrong for mainstream adoption.

The best trader depends on your goals whether it’s long-term conviction, speculation, or consistent growth. Study several traders and adapt what fits your risk profile. Platforms like Margex offer 24/7 markets so you can act on opportunities anytime. The right trader is the one whose strategy you can follow confidently.

Who is the most trusted crypto expert?

“Trusted” varies by focus. Vitalik Buterin is respected for Ethereum and DeFi insights, Michael Saylor for Bitcoin’s macro outlook, and Brian Armstrong or Gemini’s team for regulatory and retail access.

Many also follow on-chain analysts for market insights. Always verify claims and use non-custodial wallets for long-term storage. For trading capital, choose exchanges with strict security like Margex, which uses cold wallets and segregated accounts. Trust must be earned and regularly checked.

Which is the best crypto trading app? – Margex

The best app depends on usability, transparency, and features. It should support your preferred pairs, have clear fees, and offer easy order management. Margex focuses on perpetual futures with a simple interface that helps traders execute quickly. The best app is the one you can use efficiently and confidently under pressure.

Which is the best crypto trading platform? – Margex

Different traders prefer different setups some use decentralized exchanges, others centralized ones for liquidity. Margex offers BTC- and ETH-based derivatives, a protected trading engine, Bitcoin collateral options, and low fees that benefit active traders. The best platform is the one that aligns with your strategy, tools, and comfort level.