Top 50 Report: Swiss Blockchain Industry Defying ‘Crypto Winter’

Survey for Q4/18 shows Swiss blockchain industry is growing despite maket cap plunge

On January2 4th, 2019, CV VC released its second report on the 50 largest and most important blockchain companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. With hundreds of news articles and blogposts, the research conducted in cooperation with PwC Strategy & and inacta received considerable media resonance. The report was presented at the SGE event in the House of Switzerland at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

KEY FINDINGS:

• From Q3/18 to Q4/19, the market valuation of the Top 50 plunged from US$44 billion to $20 billion
• The number of participating companies soared by 20% from 629 to 750
• Crypto Valley counts four ‘unicorns’

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20% of the global market in Switzerland and Liechtenstein
The survey finds that at the end of December 2018, the cluster contained 750 companies using the distributed ledger technology that defines Blockchain. This corresponds to a growth of 121 companies, or almost 20% compared to the last count at the end of September 2018. The data comes from CV Maps, an online directory of blockchain companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, which is maintained by CV VC.

Mathias Ruch, Founder and CEO of CV VC says: “This new report clearly reflects the market correction that started in early 2018, which is significantly based on cryptocurrencies. However, it also shows that companies developing blockchain-based applications and infrastructure solutions have been able to keep up, while an impressive number of new startups with innovative use-cases have risen to the top.”

High valuations and four “unicorns”
‘Crypto winter’, as 2018’s severe market reversal has been nicknamed, has affected the valuation of participating companies –but not their number. The market capitalization of the top 50 dropped from $44 billion to $20 billion in Q4 2018, a decrease of 55%. Most cryptocurrencies worldwide lost value during this period. The global crypto market according to Coinmaketcap was valued at the end of 2018 at $130 billion. The Crypto Valley Top 50 accounts for nearly 20% of this market.

Ralf Glabischnig, Founder and Managing Partner at inacta states: “In addition to the growing number of startups we observe increased activities of corporates entering the blockchain space with their own projects or startup investments.”

On average, the top 50 companies are valued at $400 million each. Excluding the five largest, the average figure is still $365million; a sign that concentration is relatively low. The average valuation of all 750 companies was estimated at $27 million. Four unicorns –startups valued at over $1billion– are present in Crypto Valley: Ethereum, Bitmain, Dfinity and Cardano.

More than 3,000 jobs in Switzerland & Liechtenstein
Around 420 people work in Switzerland and Liechtenstein in the 50 largest blockchain companies. Overall, the industry employs more than 3,300 people, most of them in the area between Zug and Zurich. The survey finds that it is business as usual for many companies despite the collapse in value on the crypto exchanges. While over half of Blockchain companies are based in the canton of Zug, Crypto Valley extends to many other Swiss cantons: 42 are now in Geneva and 39 in Ticino. Switzerland’s neighbouring microstate of Liechtenstein registers 38 crypto companies, according to CV Maps. There are no entries in the blockchain register yet from Appenzell, Innerrhoden, Glarus, Jura and Obwalden.

15 new companies in the Top 50
Compared to the previous quarter, 15 companies entered the top 50 in the fourth quarter: Sygnum, HDAC, ICON, 4ARTechnologies, WPP Energy, Nexo, ODEM, Mt. Pelerin, Saga, Boscoin, Utopiamusic, Santiment, Quant Network, TokenPay Swiss und Zulu Republic. Dr. Daniel Diemers, Blockchain Leader EMEA at PwC Strategy: “This high dynamic in the middle of the crypto winter is very positive. It shows that the appeal of Switzerland as one of the world’s most attractive locations for blockchain startups remains uncontested”.

10 Challengers
According to CV VC, inacta and PwC Strategy & 10 startups have a good chance of making it into the top 50 over the next months: ambrpay, Arca Trust, Blockimmo, Cosmos Network, Datum, Friendz, Grain, Metaco, Orion Vault, Pigzbe, PikcioChain, Qiibee, Request Network, Taurus Group and UTRUST.

Methodology
In addition to CV Maps’ database, sources for the quarterly Top 50 survey include company registers, crypto exchanges, media reports and LinkedIn. In cooperation with PwC Strategy & Switzerland, various valuation criteria and data were established as the basis of the survey: Funding, market capitalization, number of employees, and age of company, all weighted on a scale of 1 to 10. Where no data was available, estimates were made and declared as such.