9. Niklas Nikolajsen

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(Image: Facebook Niklas Nikolajsen)

The Bitcoin pioneera Danish computer programmer, fierce libertarian, and wannabe-pirate, stands for the wider crypto industry's storming of Swiss finance. Niklas Nikolajsen is the most flamboyant and best-known of hundreds of crypto enthusiasts to make their way to Switzerland, enticed by a receptive local stance in Zug, a lakeside town roughly 30 kilometers south of Zurich.

Nikolajsen left Copenhagen for Switzerland, where he founded Bitcoin Suisse in 2013. Initially relegated to the fringes of finance, the token broker quickly established itself and poached dozens of traditional bankers. By 2019, Bitcoin Suisse was churning out more than $20 million in profits and began pursuing a full banking license (following Switzerland's approval of the first two cryptocurrency banks in August).

A marketing genius who isn't shy about showing off the trappings of his wealth, Nikolajsen last year established a family office to manage his growing fortune. This year, he and his wife snapped up a heritage landmark on Zug's lakeside. Not everything Nikolajsen has touched has been golden: he was initially linked to Tezos' troubles and had to fight to remove himself from an ugly U.S. legal dispute involving the cryptocurrency project.