At first glance, throwing Web3 and AI into a headline might seem like a bad example of buzzword soup, the practice of media companies trying to game the algorithms (and your attention) by using a bunch of the most-searched words of the day. But CoinDesk has been following the slow integration of applications that track vast amounts of data on a public blockchain and the artificial intelligence capable of making sense of that data for a decade.

In the first-ever CoinDesk Top Women in Web3 & AI list, we consulted with a panel of women judges respected in their fields to create what we believe is a powerful list that captures the zeitgeist of the moment.

Parallel Revolutions

What we’re witnessing are two parallel technological revolutions—blockchain’s promise of decentralization and AI’s leap toward transforming how we work, create, and build the world. While these fields may seem distinct, they share something crucial: they’re both reshaping the fundamental infrastructure of our digital future.

The timing of this convergence isn’t coincidental. As AI demands ever-greater computational power and data access, and as blockchain networks seek new use cases beyond cryptocurrency, the two fields are naturally intersecting in areas like data verification, distributed computing, and digital identity.

Major AI companies are exploring blockchain-based solutions for data provenance. Crypto projects are integrating AI for everything from fraud detection to agentic trading. An entirely new field of Web3, called decentralized artificial intelligence (deAI) is leveraging the vast amount of power used to audit blockchains to train AI models capable of competing with centralized solutions.

The Authors of Tomorrow

The technology industry’s gender gap is well-documented, particularly in emerging fields like blockchain and AI. While the reasons are complex, from educational pipeline issues to workplace culture, the result is that women remain significantly underrepresented in both fields.

Then, there’s the list. These 50 remarkable women are not footnotes in the story of emerging technology — they are its authors. They are building protocols and platforms, leading billion-dollar startups, and shaping global governance frameworks. They’re doing this while navigating systems never designed with them in mind, bringing empathy, creativity, and uncompromising rigor to the most critical issues of our time.

AI and blockchain are two sides of the same coin — one built on probabilistic reasoning and the other on cryptographic certainty. AI interprets and predicts the world; blockchain verifies and preserves it. One thrives on inference, the other on immutability. Together, they offer a blueprint for a future that is both adaptive and accountable, generative and just.

This list was brought to life through a collaboration between CoinDesk and Proof of Talk, hosted by XVentures. As part of its annual summit — held this year in Paris at the Louvre Palace — Proof of Talk convenes a range of actors across the blockchain and AI ecosystems: founders, investors, policymakers, and academics helping shape the trajectory of both fields for years to come.

With AI development accelerating globally and blockchain applications like stablecoins gaining institutional adoption, European engagement in both technical development and policy formation has become increasingly important for the region’s broader technological competitiveness. Web3 & AI are truly global, and every region is contributing and competing.

Selection Methodology

To help ensure the list selection process was as unbiased as possible we sought out multiple, diverse perspectives.

An initial public outreach on numerous social media platforms and to our deeply sourced expert analysts, resulted in more than 300 nominations from every geographic region. After removing the name and contact information from each nomination, CoinDesk’s editorial board narrowed the candidates to 100 semifinalists. A panel of five judges then reviewed the resulting list of semifinalists, looking for the rare combination of innovation, relevancy and influence. Each judge closely reviewed 20 candidates, providing crucial feedback for the final selection process.

The judges were: Julia Bonafede, Co-Founder of investment management firm, Rosetta Analytics; Olivia Bolec, Google’s Enterprise Global Account Director; Sarah Idahosa, Founder of Women in Defi; Saruul Krause-Jentsch, Head of Podcast at Spotify for Central Europe; and Amélie M., Founder and President of the French branch of the Association of Women in Crypto.

In the end, it was the CoinDesk editorial board, myself included, who closely reviewed the resulting feedback, making the difficult decision of the 50 leaders to be recognized.

Rather than focusing exclusively on technical innovation, the list recognizes that the development of emerging technologies involves multiple types of expertise—from product development and business strategy to regulatory compliance and ethical frameworks. As both Web3 and AI move from experimental phases toward broader adoption, these diverse perspectives become increasingly important.

See the full list here.