Stani Kulechov (DeFi / Blockchain) at Aave — London, United Kingdom

Stani Kulechov founded Aave in 2017 (originally as ETHLend), creating one of the world's largest decentralized lending protocols. Aave allows users to lend and borrow cryptocurrency without intermediaries, using smart contracts to automate collateral and liquidation. At its peak, Aave held over $20 billion in total value locked. Kulechov also founded Lens Protocol, a decentralized social network infrastructure, as part of his vision for fully open, user-owned internet applications.