Huobi Research Weekly (Vol.106) 2020.3.16–2020.3.22）

Abstract

This week, the overall market capitalization for the top 100 cryptocurrencies increased of 6.84%, with 57 projects increased in value to varying degrees. According to coinmarketcap, as of March 22, 2020, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies was 163.3 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 6.84%, and the total market cap of the top 100 cryptocurrencies was 162.8 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 5.34% from last week. 3 cryptocurrency projects entered the top 100 this week, namely BAY、VSYS、and SNT. As of March 22, 2020, Bitcoin was traded at 5830.25USD, 8.18% higher than its price last week. Ethereum was traded at 123.32USD, 1.43% lower than its price last week.

The hashrate of Bitcoin decreased and Ethereum decreased by this week. This week, the difficulty of mining Bitcoin increased but the difficulty of mining Ethereum decreased. The average number of transactions per block increased and the average block size of Bitcoin increased. The average number of transactions per block increased and the average block size of Ethereum decreased this week.The average transaction fees of Bitcoin increased but Ethereum decreased. ZSC was the most active project on GitHub this week.

The average bitcoin Hashrate for the entire network reached 94.63 EH/s, decreased by 16.77% from the previous week.Average Hashrate for the entire Ethereum network was 173.58TH/s this week, decreased by 3.54%. Average difficulty for mining Bitcoin this week was 16.55T, increased by 2.29% from last week. The average difficulty of mining Ethereum this week was 2186.98TH, decreased by 3.48% from that of previous week.

In network activity, the average size of each block was 1.22MB, increased 7.02% form last week; there were on average 2286 transactions recorded in each block, increased by 2.05% from the previous week. The average number of transactions per block in Ethereum this week was 121.5, increased by 5.65%. The average size of each block was 25662.57 bytes, decreased by 0.24% compared to last week. As of March 22, 2020, average transaction fees of Bitcoin this week was $1.181, increased by 15.67% from last week. Average transaction fees of Ethereum this week was $ 0.0796, decresead by 28.29%. The total number of Bitcoin addresses was 46797409 increased by 202961 (0.44%). ZSC was the most active project on GitHub this week, with 81 commits submitted in the past week.

In terms of community activity, Tron, Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most popular communities on Facebook. On Twitter, the most popular communities are Bitcoin, Ripple and Tron.

2 investments activities took place in the blockchain industry this week, The sandbox got 2.01 million dollars investment in strategic round, FundsDLT got A round investment from Clearstream、Credit Suisse Asset Management、Luxembourg Stock Exchange and Natixis Investment Managers .

1.Weekly Market Review

1.1 Market overview
This week, the overall market capitalization for the top 100 cryptocurrencies increased of 6.84%, with 57 projects increased in value to varying degrees. According to coinmarketcap, as of March 22, 2020, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies was 163.3 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 6.84%, and the total market cap of the top 100 cryptocurrencies was 162.8 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 5.34% from last week, among which, BAY had the largest increased of 126.76%, bringing its market cap ranking from №141 to №77, STO had the largest decreased of -93.12%, bringing its market cap ranking from №9 to №45. In addition, there were 3 projects that entered TOP100, namely, VSYS (v.systems, increased 11.18%, Now №91), SNT (Status, increased 30.26%, Now №93), BAY (BitBay, increased 126.76%, Now №77). As of March 22, 2020, Bitcoin was traded at 5830.25USD, 8.18% higher than its price last week. Ethereum was traded at 123.32USD, 1.43% lower than its price last week.

The overall 24h trading volume increased this week. Overall, the 24h trading volume increased by 11.97% compared with the same period of last week. In this week, 56 of the top 100 projects increased in 24h trading volume, led by BAY with a weekly increase of 9288.96%; there were 42 projects decreased in their 24h trading volume, there were 15 projects that saw over 20% decrease in their 24h trading volume, while 7 projects fell by more than 50%, led by STO, with a decreased of 93.12%.

The top 10 cryptocurrencies’ market value increased, the market share distribution remained stable. On March 22, 2020, the overall market cap of the top 10 cryptocurrencies was 145.0 billion USD, increased by 6.02% from last week, accounting for 88.81% of the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies, decreased by 0.69% from last week. The market value proportion of TOP10 project basically stable. BTC’s dominance was 65.25%, increased by 0.81% from last week.

1.2 Segment Analysis
Among TOP 100 cryptocurrency project segments, the total market cap of coin Project got the largest increase. The average market cap of coin Project got the largest increase. As of March 22, 2020, the total market cap of coin projects reached 122.6 billion USD, increased by 6.88%. The average market cap of coin projects reached 3.60 billion USD, increased by 10.02%. The total market cap of platform projects reached 20.2 billion USD, decreased by 0.37%. The average market cap of platform projects reached 0.69 billion USD, increased by 3.06%. The total market cap of application class projects reached 15.2 billion USD, increased by 3.04%. The average market cap of application class projects reached 0.43 billion USD, decreased by 2.85%. The total market cap of asset-backed token projects reached 4.77 billion USD, decreased by 0.18%. The average market cap of asset-backed token projects reached 2.38 billion USD, decreased by 0.18%.

The market segment distribution of the top 100 cryptocurrencies remained stable. As of March 22, 2020, among the top 100 projects, the number of coin class projects decreased 1, application class projects increased 2, platform class projects decreased 1 and asset-backed token class remain the same. The largest overall market cap by segment was still coin projects, accounting for 75.29% of the total market cap of top 100 projects.

Note: According to the different attributes of cryptocurrencies, Huobi Academy of Blockchain Application will divide them into four categories: Coin, Application Class, Platform Class and Asset-backed Token.

Coin Project: Refers to a type of asset developed based on blockchain technology that does not correspond to a specific use scenario and whose main function is only the transaction target. Its asset value is mainly reflected by liquidity.

Platform Class Project: A type of asset that is associated with the development of the underlying technology of the blockchain and is supported by the right to use or participate in the platform.

Application Class Project: Refers to a type of asset that is associated with a specific application scenario and is supported by a certain right of use, participation, or dividend.

Asset-backed Project: Refers to a class of assets that is linked to actual assets such as gold and US dollars and supported by the value of physical assets.

2. Technical Statistics

2.1 Cryptocurrency Mining Statistics

The hashrate of Bitcoin decreased and Ethereum decreased by this week. From March 16, 2020 — March 22, 2020 ,the average bitcoin Hashrate for the entire network reached 94.63 EH/s, decreased by 16.77% from the previous week.
Average Hashrate for the entire Ethereum network was 173.58TH/s this week, decreased by 3.54%.

This week, the difficulty of mining Bitcoin increased but Ethereum decreased. As of March 22, 2020, average difficulty for mining Bitcoin this week was 16.55T, increased by 2.29% from last week. The average difficulty of mining Ethereum this week was 2186.98TH, decreased by 3.48% from that of previous week.

The number of blocks in Bitcoin decreased by 14.94%. Top 5 rankings had changed. The overall distribution of the Ethereum mining pools rankings remain the same, the number of blocks decreased 0.09%. In the past week, Bitcoin mined 814 blocks, decreased 14.94% from the previous week. Among the top five pools were F2Pool、Poolin、BTC.com、AntPool、 ViaBTC, these 5 pools mined 158、139、103、82 and 52 blocks respectively, accounting for 19.41%、17.08%、12.65%、10.07% and 6.39% of all Bitcoins mined this week. The Hashrate was 18.68 EH/s、16.43EH/s、12.17EH/s、9.69EH/s and 6.15EH/s, respectively.
In the past week, Ethereu’s entire network mined 47395 blocks, decreased 0.09% from the previous week. The top five pools were SparkPool, Ethermine, F2pool, Nanopool and Zhizhu.top, each mined 15456、10581、4653、3717 and 1851 blocks respectively, accounting for 32.6110%、22.3251%、9.8175%、7.8426% and 3.9055% of all Ethereum mined this week, respectively.

2.2 Activity Statistics
The average number of transactions per block increased and the average block size of Bitcoin increased. The average number of transactions per block increased and the average block size of Ethereum decreased this week. According to blockchain.info, from March,16,2020-March,22,2020, the average size of each block was 1.22MB, increased 7.02% form last week; there were on average 2286 transactions recorded in each block, increased by 2.05% from the previous week.

According to etherscan, the average number of transactions per block in Ethereum this week was 121.5, increased by 5.65%. The average size of each block was 25662.57 bytes, decreased by 0.24% compared to last week.

Number of unconfirmed transactions in Bitcoin decreased by 1.18%. Number of unconfirmed transactions in Ethereum decreased by 36.75% from the previous week. As of March 22, 2020, the number of 7-day average unconfirmed transactions in Bitcoin network was 14271, decreased by 1.18% from last week. There were 45683.32 unconfirmed transactions in the Ethereum network, decreased by 36.75% from last week, with the lowest amount of unconfirmed transactions in the week being 19205 and the highest amount being 76952.

Total transaction fees of Bitcoin increased but Ethereum decreased. As of March 22, 2020, average transaction fees of Bitcoin this week was $1.181, increased by 15.67% from last week. Average transaction fees of Ethereum this week was $ 0.0796, decresead by 28.29%.

The average number of distinct miners per day in Ethereum decreased by 2.52% from last week. From March 16, 2020-March 22, 2020,the average number of distinct miners per day in Ethereum this week was 54.1, decreased by 2.52% from last week.

The number of nodes in Bitcoin decreased ,The number of nodes in Ethereum decreased this week. As of March 22, 2020, there were 10053 Bitcoin nodes, decreased by 1.96% compared to last week, of which 2050 nodes were in the U.S, 1796 nodes were Germany, and 242 nodes were in China(№9), each accounting for 20.39%, 17.87% and 2.41% of the total number of Bitcoin nodes, respectively.
As of March 22, 2020, there were 6949 Ethereum nodes, decreased by 0.36% from the previous week. Specifically, there were 1966 nodes in the U.S, 497 nodes in China, and 78173 nodes in Germany, each accounting for 28.29%, 7.15%, 11.12% of total number of nodes, respectively.

This week, the growth rate for new addresses of Bitcoin increased. According to the data on blockchain, as of March 22, 2020, the total number of Bitcoin addresses was 46797409 increased by 202961 (0.44%).

ZSC was the most active project on GitHub this week. From March 16, 2020 — March 22, 2020, ZSC was the active project repository on GitHub with a total of 81 commits.

2.3 Community Activity Statistics
The top three most popular cryptocurrencies on Facebook were Tron, Bitcoin and Ethereum in descending order, with 961k, 538k and 159k fans respectively. The top three most popular cryptocurrencies on Twitter were Bitcoin, Ripple(XRP) and TRON, with 1 million , 946k, and 501k followers, respectively.

3. Weekly Blockchain News Review

3.1 Industrial Application

1. Argentine Gas Regulator Launches Blockchain Network, Expands to Whole Country

Argentina’s natural gas regulator, Enargas, approved the expansion of a blockchain-based gas distribution tracking platform. The system was already piloted by a local distributor servicing over 2 million residents.According to an announcement on March 18, the system — dubbed Gasnet — was authorized for expansion to the whole country. Before now, the network was used only by Gasnor, a 2 million customer-strong local gas distributor. Blockchain is becoming increasingly useful within the fossil fuel industry due to the technology’s ability to help manage complex ecosystems and supply chains. As an analysis published by Cointelegraph in February suggests, oil firms have begun using blockchain to make the industry safer, cleaner, and more efficient.

2. New Blockchain System to Track Individuals Not Infected With High-Risk Viruses

The Netherlands-based Public Health Blockchain Consortium (PHBC) has announced the release of a blockchain-based system designed to track the movement of individuals not infected with high-risk viruses. The impetus behind the development is to help healthy people avoid potentially life-threatening diseases.The PHBC announced the release on March 19, detailing that the blockchain-based platform will monitor systematic, continual and anonymous verification of communities and workplaces, which are not afflicted by dangerous viruses, including the Coronavirus. The coronavirus outbreak has pushed blockchain companies to more actively develop health-focused applications and systems. Tech firm ConsenSys will spin off its health devision, which will explore blockchain application to the health industry, citing issues such as rising costs and access to care as some of the areas where blockchain can contribute.

3. Blockchain for Australian Farmers: A Shield Against Worsening Climate
Australian farmers are all too familiar with dry and erratic weather conditions affecting day-to-day business. Reports over the last 20 years demonstrate that these conditions will only worsen — with an increased climate estimated to have reduced yearly profits by 22%.The current bushfire season has had a disastrous impact on the agricultural industry. NASA mapping data estimated that 8.6 million sheep and 2.3 million cattle across New South Wales and Victoria were affected, and about 500,000 total livestock perished. Farming is becoming increasingly unpredictable, and bushfire seasons are becoming more likely and are lasting longer. As an increasing climate becomes a more pressing issue, there will be greater pressure on workflow and data-sharing solutions.It is clear that blockchain technology is the solution Australia has been looking for. As farmers look to rebuild their land and livelihood, we recommend adopting agricultural innovations that will improve productivity, profitability and environmental sustainability of their farming businesses.

3.2 International Policies

1. Monetary Authority of Singapore Issues AML/CFT Guidelines
Some countries have been late to the party when it comes to recognizing and regulating digital assets. The first time that Singapore’s central bank issued a framework for the regulation of payment-related activities was on Jan. 28 with the Payment Services Act. However, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) still saw the potential risks that digital assets could pose to the economy, such as money laundering and financing terrorism. As part of the effort to address this, the MAS issued a notice on Dec. 5 regarding the ”Prevention of Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism”.The notice detailed anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorisrm (CFT) requirements for digital payment token service providers — including risk assessment and risk mitigation, customer due diligence, reliance on third parties, correspondent accounts and wire transfers, record keeping, suspicious transaction reporting, and internal policies.

2. South Korean Government to Grant $3.2 Million to Blockchain Companies

Two South Korean ministries have announced their support for the blockchain industry in the country with plans to allocate up to $3.2 million in funding to local startups to encourage the use of such technology.The Ministry of Science and ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and the Ministry of Information and Communication Industry Promotion will launch a pilot program called “Blockchain Technology Validation Support in 2020” to carry out the project, according to a March 16 report.The plan is to select nine projects through free public offerings and grant each one up to 450 million won ($360,000) in funding.Among the program’s selected criteria is the excellence of current performance, the feasibility of future performance, the feasibility of technology verification, solid business goals and savvy, expected results, and level of jobs expected to be created.

3. Sweden’s Central Bank Wants to Host Innovation Hub for Digital Currencies

The Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank that started testing its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) in February, wants to host the digital currency innovation hub by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).Officially announcing the news on March 6, the Riksbank noted that in order for the hub to be located in Sweden, the bank would need to undertake a number of measures to co-finance the activity. As such, the Riksbank proposed an amendment to the Sveriges Riksbank Act, asking the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, for approval to finance the activities of international organizations.The Riksbank requested the parliament for permission to co-finance such activities for a period of five years and at a maximum cost of 30 million Swedish kronas ($3.1 million) per year, should the BIS chooses to establish a hub in Sweden.The Riksbank circulated a referral on the amendment proposal on Jan. 23, 2020, noting that the majority of referral bodies like other authorities, organizations and stakeholders either supported the proposal or have no objection to it.

4.Weekly Investment Activities

2 investments activities took place in the blockchain industry this week, The sandbox got 2.01 million dollars investment in strategic round, FundsDLT got A round investment from Clearstream、Credit Suisse Asset Management、Luxembourg Stock Exchange and Natixis Investment Managers .

Huobi Research

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