Blockchain Assets: Market Landscape

The team here at ERC dEX (currently in closed alpha) has compiled some data on the shifting landscape of the cryptocurrency market. We wanted to share it with you — let us know if you find this useful in the comments below or give us a clap — and we’ll likely publish more research like this.

The market cap for blockchain assets grew over 700% during the year-to-date (YTD) period ending on 9/24/17, adding over $114B to the total value of this market.

To benchmark, Bitcoin represented 42% of the total growth, increasing the value by $48B.

Underlying this growth is a shift in market share among blockchain assets. Despite its tremendous growth, Bitcoin’s market share actually declined from 88% to 48% during this period due to faster growth in other blockchain assets — notably Ether. (Update: The recent market volatility combined with dip buying by institutional investors has pushed Bitcoin’s market share back to 55% as of publication.)

Ether, the cryptocurrency for the Ethereum blockchain, grew 4,142% from $1B to $27B during the YTD period. Correspondingly, Ether’s market share increased from 4% to 21% over this time frame as well.

To be certain, a portion of the growth in other assets is due to early Bitcoin investors diversifying away from highly appreciated investments. However, the breadth in number and growth in value of other assets demonstrates continued innovation and proliferation within this space. This is especially noticeable with the Ethereum blockchain — over 300 companies issued (or plan to issue) Ethereum tokens during 2017, the bulk of which in the second half of the year. See the chart below for more details.

Of the innovative companies we’ve been following, here are a few of the notable successful raises:

Basic Attention Token (“BAT”) BAT is disrupting the digital advertising industry by paying publishers for their content and users for their attention, while at the same time improving advertisers return on investment.

Civic (“CVC”) provides biometric, multi-factor identity verification services through the blockchain. The company effectively reduces expenses and improves efficiency for KYC checks, while simultaneously enhancing security and privacy.

Golem (“GNT”) is a distributed computing-as-a-service where people can ‘rent’ out their computing power.

iXledger (“IXT”) created a peer-to-peer alternative marketplace where insurance companies, reinsurers and brokers can share data and interact to more effectively serve customers.

OmiseGo (“OMG”) is a digital wallet that enable real-time, peer-to-peer transfers and payments across crypto and fiat currencies.

Salt (“SALT”) provides cash loans backed by blockchain assets.

TenX (“TENX”) supports global payments for multiple blockchain assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, ERC20 tokens and Dash among others.

Other companies with successful crowd raises include Branche (micro-finance), Gnosis and Stox (prediction markets), Storj (cloud storage), and Patientory (medical records). For traders looking to diversify assets, several blockchain investment platforms issued tokens during this period including Blockchain Capital, Intellisys Capital, and Genevieve Company LLC.

Companies like the ones mentioned above, are using tokens to fuel a new generation of decentralized protocols and services. As the token ecosystem continues to grow, users will need a way to seamlessly transfer value between these tokens. ERC dEX will provide just that. Regular Ethereum users can’t be expected to hold balances in each of these tokens. Instead, they’ll likely hold Ether and acquire the necessary tokens at the time they wish to use a given protocol. Building on the infrastructure provided by the Øx Project, ERC dEX is creating the marketplace where users can efficiently acquire the tokens they need, directly from their digital wallet. That’s a large part of what makes network relays, like ERC dEX, so valuable.

At ERC dEX, we believe this is just the beginning of the “token” economy (so to speak). Our mission is to return financial self-determination to the individual trader with trustless, peer-to-peer trading, provide advanced financial instruments to hedge market risk, and support liquidity in the Øx Network with Aqueduct™, our relay syndication protocol. Follow us here on Medium, sign up for our newsletter, and join us for the revolution!