J ean-Louis van der Velde is a Dutch billionaire and a highly influential, yet extremely secretive, figure in the cryptocurrency industry. He is the co-founder and CEO of both the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and Tether, the company behind the world's largest and most important stablecoin, USDT. He is a key member of the small group of executives who control these two central pillars of the global crypto economy.

As the CEO of both companies, he has been at the helm during their explosive and often controversial growth. Tether's USDT stablecoin has become the primary lubricant for the entire crypto trading ecosystem, but the company has faced intense scrutiny and regulatory action over the nature of the reserves that are supposed to back the tens of billions of dollars worth of USDT in circulation. Despite his immense power in the industry, van der Velde is notoriously reclusive, rarely, if ever, making public appearances or speaking to the media.