I looked at 29 coins. Only 12 projects still have their founder at the helm, without ever having left. Here they are, in order:
Sold it or left
$BTC: Satoshi wrote his last message in 2011
$DOGE: Its founder sold it in 2015 for car money
$LTC: Its founder sold all of it in 2017
$XRP: A co-founder sold 9 billion XRP
$SHIB: Its founder disappeared in 2022 and erased his tracks
$XMR: Its founder disappeared in 2014
$SUSHI: Its founder withdrew $14 million, returned it, and left
$ZEC: Its founder stepped down from management in 2023
$EOS: Its founder left in 2021
$ATOM: Its founder left and built a competing chain
Got caught up in legal cases
$FTT: Its founder was sentenced to 25 years in prison and is still inside
$LUNC: Its founder was sentenced to 15 years in prison
$CEL: Its founder was sentenced to 12 years in prison
$SAFEMOON: Its CEO was sentenced to 8 years in prison
$BNB: Its founder was jailed for 4 months, pardoned, and never returned
bitcoin-cash:native: The biggest name paid $49.9 million, and that was that
Left, then came back
$DOT: Its founder left in 2022, then returned in 2025
Still at the helm
$ETH: Vitalik Buterin
$SOL: Anatoly Yakovenko
$ADA: Charles Hoskinson
$AVAX: Emin Gün Sirer
$LINK: Sergey Nazarov
$TRX: Justin Sun
$AAVE: Stani Kulechov
$UNI: Hayden Adams
$NEAR: Illia Polosukhin
$HYPE: Jeff Yan
$CRV: Michael Egorov
$WLD: Sam Altman
Look, a founder leaving doesn’t kill a coin. Bitcoin’s founder has been absent for 15 years, and Dogecoin’s founder sold it for car money, yet both are still among the biggest coins.
But you need to know this: for some coins, the founder has already sold and left, while you’re still the one holding them.
A founder staying doesn’t save a project on its own. Some coins in the “Still at the helm” list are more than 90% below their peak.
I know that when people buy a coin, nobody looks at the founder—they look at the chart. But the first question you should ask is: Is the person who founded this thing still here? Is their money still in it?
Which one on the list surprised you the most? Tell us in the comments.
Save this. Before buying a new coin, look it up and find out where its founder is today.