Huobi Research Weekly (Vol.109) 2020.4.6–2020.4.12）

Abstract

This week, the overall market capitalization for the top 100 cryptocurrencies increased of 4.18%, with 77 projects increased in value to varying degrees. According to coinmarketcap, as of April 12, 2020, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies was 198.5 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 4.18%, and the total market cap of the top 100 cryptocurrencies was 198.2 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 4.09% from last week. 3 cryptocurrency projects entered the top 100 this week, namely SURE、XTP and LUNA. As of April 12, 2020, Bitcoin was traded at 6971.09USD, 2.73% higher than its price last week. Ethereum was traded at 161.14USD, 12.35% higher than its price last week.

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

The average bitcoin Hashrate for the entire network reached 116.3 EH/s, increased by 7.09% from the previous week. Average Hashrate for the entire Ethereum network was 174.77TH/s this week, decreased by 1.10%. Average difficulty for mining Bitcoin this week was 14.71T, increased by 5.75% from last week. The average difficulty of mining Ethereum this week was 2200.18TH, decreased by 0.98% from that of previous week.

In network activity, The average size of each block was 784.8KB, decreased 27.33% form last week; there were on average 1559 transactions recorded in each block, decreased by 3.35% from the previous week. The average number of transactions per block in Ethereum this week was 113.4, increased by 7.28%. The average size of each block was 23998.57 bytes, increased by 5.18% compared to last week. As of April 12, 2020, average transaction fees of Bitcoin this week was $0.380, decreased by 14.80% from last week. Average transaction fees of Ethereum this week was $ 0.0926, incresead by 11.84%. The total number of Bitcoin addresses was 47536373 increased by 259823 (0.55%). ZSC was the most active project on GitHub this week, with 65 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, CHAMPtitles got 5 million dollars in strategic investment , Sila got 7.7 million dollars in seed round investment from Oregon Venture Fund、Madrona Venture Group、Rick Holt leader.

1. Weekly Market Review

1.1 Market overview
This week, the overall market capitalization for the top 100 cryptocurrencies increased of 4.18%, with 77 projects increased in value to varying degrees. According to coinmarketcap, as of April 12, 2020, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies was 198.5 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 4.18%, and the total market cap of the top 100 cryptocurrencies was 198.2 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 4.09% from last week, among which, MB had the largest increased of 273.31%, bringing its market cap ranking from №94 to №42, THX had the largest decreased of -17.29%, bringing its market cap ranking from №84 to №99. In addition, there were 3 projects that entered TOP100, namely, XTP (tap, increased 10.36%, Now №97), LUNA (Terra, increased 14.10%, Now №96), SURE (inSure, increased 23.99%, Now №86). As of April 12, 2020, Bitcoin was traded at 6971.09USD, 2.73% higher than its price last week. Ethereum was traded at 161.14USD, 12.35% higher than its price last week.

The overall 24h trading volume increased this week. Overall, the 24h trading volume increased by 24.57% compared with the same period of last week. In this week, 60 of the top 100 projects increased in 24h trading volume, led by DGD with a weekly increase of 1439.61%; there were 38 projects decreased in their 24h trading volume, there were 17 projects that saw over 20% decrease in their 24h trading volume, while 7 projects fell by more than 50%, led by HEX, with a decreased of 93.55%.

The top 10 cryptocurrencies’ market value increased, the market share distribution remained stable. On April 12, 2020, the overall market cap of the top 10 cryptocurrencies was 176.9 billion USD, increased by 4.13% from last week, accounting for 89.11% of the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies, decreased by 0.05% from last week. The market value proportion of TOP10 project basically stable. BTC’s dominance was 64.33%, decreased by 0.91% from last week.

1.2 Segment Analysis
Among TOP 100 cryptocurrency project segments, the total market cap of Platform Project got the largest increase. The average market cap of Application Project got the largest increase. As of April 12, 2020, the total market cap of coin projects reached 147.7 billion USD, increased by 3.39%. The average market cap of coin projects reached 3.99 billion USD, increased by 0.60%. The total market cap of platform projects reached 25.5 billion USD, increased by 9.93%. The average market cap of platform projects reached 0.98 billion USD, increased by 9.93%. The total market cap of application class projects reached 19.3 billion USD, increased by 7.59%. The average market cap of application class projects reached 0.55 billion USD, increased by 10.67%. The total market cap of asset-backed token projects reached 6.55 billion USD, increased by 3.66%. The average market cap of asset-backed token projects reached 3.27 billion USD, increased by 3.66%.

The market segment distribution of the top 100 cryptocurrencies remained stable. As of April 12, 2020, among the top 100 projects, the number of coin class projects increased 1, application class projects decreased 1, platform class projects remain the same and asset-backed token class remain the same. The largest overall market cap by segment was still coin projects, accounting for 74.17% 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 increased but Ethereum decreased by this week. From April 6 30, 2020 — April 12, 2020 ,the average bitcoin Hashrate for the entire network reached 116.3 EH/s, increased by 7.09% from the previous week.
Average Hashrate for the entire Ethereum network was 174.77TH/s this week, decreased by 1.10%.

This week, the difficulty of mining Bitcoin increased but Ethereum decreased. As of April 12, 2020, average difficulty for mining Bitcoin this week was 14.71T, increased by 5.75% from last week. The average difficulty of mining Ethereum this week was 2200.18TH, decreased by 0.98% from that of previous week.

The number of blocks in Bitcoin increased by 4.27%. Top 5 rankings remain the same. The overall distribution of the Ethereum mining pools rankings remain the same, the number of blocks decreased 0.15%. In the past week, Bitcoin mined 1098 blocks, increased 4.27% from the previous week. Among the top five pools were F2Pool、Poolin、BTC.com、AntPool、OKExPool, these 5 pools mined 216、191、154、151 and 79 blocks respectively, accounting for 19.67%、17.40%、14.03%、13.75% and 7.19% of all Bitcoins mined this week. The Hashrate was 22.07 EH/s、19.52EH/s、15.74EH/s、15.43EH/s and 8.07EH/s, respectively.
In the past week, Ethereu’s entire network mined 47966 blocks, decreased 0.15% from the previous week. The top five pools were SparkPool, Ethermine, F2pool, Nanopool and Zhizhu.top, each mined 16103、10484、4821、3374 and 2053 blocks respectively, accounting for 33.5717%、21.8571%、10.0509%、7.0341% and 4.2801% of all Ethereum mined this week, respectively.

2.2 Activity Statistics
The average number of transactions per block decreased and the average block size of Bitcoin decreased. The average number of transactions per block increased and the average block size of Ethereum increased this week. According to blockchain.info, from April 6, 2020-April 12, 2020, the average size of each block was 784.8KB, decreased 27.33% form last week; there were on average 1559 transactions recorded in each block, decreased by 3.35% from the previous week.

According to etherscan, the average number of transactions per block in Ethereum this week was 113.4, increased by 7.28%. The average size of each block was 23998.57 bytes, increased by 5.18% compared to last week.

Number of unconfirmed transactions in Bitcoin decreased by 9.56%. Number of unconfirmed transactions in Ethereum increased by 2.59% from the previous week. As of April 12, 2020, the number of 7-day average unconfirmed transactions in Bitcoin network was 1240, decreased by 9.56% from last week. There were 65395.06 unconfirmed transactions in the Ethereum network, increased by 2.59% from last week, with the lowest amount of unconfirmed transactions in the week being 5631 and the highest amount being 78765.

Total transaction fees of Bitcoin decreased but Ethereum increased. As of April 12, 2020, average transaction fees of Bitcoin this week was $0.380, decreased by 14.80% from last week. Average transaction fees of Ethereum this week was $ 0.0926, incresead by 11.84%.

The average number of distinct miners per day in Ethereum decreased by 1.10% from last week. From April 5, 2020-April 12, 2020,the average number of distinct miners per day in Ethereum this week was 53.8, decreased by 1.10% from last week.

The number of nodes in Bitcoin decreased ,The number of nodes in Ethereum decreased this week. As of April 12, 2020, there were 9975 Bitcoin nodes, decreased by 1.55% compared to last week, of which 2004 nodes were in the U.S, 1805 nodes were Germany, and 233 nodes were in China(№9), each accounting for 20.09%, 18.10% and 2.34% of the total number of Bitcoin nodes, respectively.
As of April 12, 2020, there were 3269 Ethereum nodes, decreased by 51.28% from the previous week. Specifically, there were 911 nodes in the U.S, 358 nodes in China, and 321 nodes in Germany, each accounting for 27.87%, 10.95%, 9.82% 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 April 12, 2020, the total number of Bitcoin addresses was 47536373 increased by 259823 (0.55%).

ZSC was the most active project on GitHub this week. From April 6, 2020 — April 12, 2020, ZSC was the active project repository on GitHub with a total of 65 commits.

2.3 Community Activity Statistics
The top three most popular cryptocurrencies on Facebook were Tron, Bitcoin and Ethereum in descending order, with 959k, 549k and 160k fans respectively. The top three most popular cryptocurrencies on Twitter were Bitcoin, Ripple(XRP) and TRON, with 1 million , 947k, and 504k followers, respectively.

3. Weekly Blockchain News Review

3.1 Industrial Application

1. Dutch Brokerage Platform Launches Crypto Trading Across Europe

In response to the growing demand for cryptocurrency trading, Dutch retail brokerage platform BUX launched its commission-free cryptocurrency trading platform BUX Crypto.In a statement published April 8, the company announced that BUX Crypto is now available across 25 European countries.BUX stated that its new offering aims to bring new traders into cryptocurrency markets by simplifying the crypto trading process. At present, the platform supports the trade of six major cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC) and the platform’s native token BUX. Per the release, the company plans to add more cryptocurrencies to its portal over time.

2. CargoSmart, Tesla and Cosco to Pilot Blockchain Tech in Cargo Release Process
CargoSmart, the software wing of the Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line, aims to transform the cargo release process using its new blockchain application.According to a report published by Splash 247 on April 7, CargoSmart partnered with Cosco, Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG), and the electric vehicle and clean energy behemoth Tesla to conduct a pilot project for the application. The traditional documentation processes of the shipping industry are cost and time-intensive, which makes the whole industry less efficient. CargoSmart has been conducting research and development for its application to reduce consignee and shipment agent verification steps. The firm aims to digitize the documentation process and reduce the overall time for picking up cargo from shipping terminals and thus reduce delivery times. The application will undoubtedly accelerate the digitalization of shipping industry processes and the further optimization of currently stressed global supply chains.

3. Researchers Design Blockchain-Based Digital Court In Japan
A group of researchers has devised a blockchain-based mechanism to perform legal functions in a so-called “digital court,” according to an April 6 announcement.Professors Hitoshi Matsushima from the University of Tokyo, and Shunya Noda from the University of British Columbia, have been leading the project, which aims to settle legal disputes without the need for a “costly legal process.”In the announcement, the University of Tokyo clarified that this would be an extension of existing ideas for smart contracts without a centralized administration. The University says that the benefit of the system is that most stages occur away from the blockchain, which is only invoked to maintain records of the parties involved in the dispute.Professor Matsushima provided additional details regarding the design of the blockchain-based mechanism:“On suspected violation of some agreement, those involved post their opinions to this digital court. The court algorithmically aggregates the parties’ opinions and judges who violated their agreement. If the digital court judges that a party violated the agreement, the party is fined by withholding a deposit made during the initial agreement.”

3.2 International Policies

1. Cardano Foundation Endorses South African Blockchain Alliance Establishment To Boost Adoption

The Cardano Foundation praised the establishment of the South African National Blockchain Alliance (SANBA) on April 7. The cooperation endeavors to explore further ways to strengthen technology’s adoption throughout South Africa.According to the official announcement, Cardano Foundation praises the use of blockchain technology to boost socio-economic growth in South Africa. The Foundation believes such an establishment will help them to achieve their goal of increasing blockchain adoption across the region. Cardano Foundation cites the South Africa market as pivotal to building a network across the country that is made up of governments, institutions, and companies that currently use its technology. “Cardano believes in empowering individuals and enterprises by putting them in direct control of their information, wealth and value. Blockchain technology lets developing nations break ties with legacy banking systems, costly middlemen and entrenched political structures.” On other fronts, Cardano Foundation believes that the possible applications of blockchain technology would let them guarantee greater transparency, reduce fraud, build digital identity infrastructure and boost developing economies through virtual currencies.

2. South Korea’s Central Bank Launches Digital Currency Pilot Program
The Bank of Korea announced on April 6 that it has launched a pilot program to assess the logistics of issuing a central bank digital currency — or CBDC. Following theoretical research conducted in February 2020, the pilot will comprise a technological and legal review of CBDC issuance. It began in March and is scheduled to run for 22 months, through to December 2021. The announcement made clear that the bank does not see an immediate need to release a digital currency in South Korea, rather that, based on other nations’ research in the field, it wishes to be prepared in case such a move becomes a necessity:”The need to issue a CBDC in the near future still remains slim when considering the demand for cash that still exists, the competitive payment service market and high-level financial inclusion, but there is a need to be able to quickly take steps in case market conditions at home and abroad change rapidly.”

3. Revised Crypto Laws in Japan to be Enforced Starting May 1
In the April 3 edition of an official government newsletter, it was announced that the revised versions of the PSA and FIEA would be enforced in Japan starting on May 1. As there are no official laws to regulate crypto in Japan, amending existing regulations is the only way at this time for digital assets to have any kind of legal status in the Asian nation. As such, changes to the PSA range from changing basic terminology — “crypto asset” instead of “virtual currency” — to tightening restrictions on crypto custodians.In addition, crypto exchanges operating in Japan from May 1 will have to manage users’ money separately from their own cash flows. This means finding a third-party operator to keep hold of their clients’ money, and using “reliable methods” like cold wallets to do so. If users insist on using hot wallets, exchanges would have to hold “the same kind and the same quantities of crypto assets” as their users to properly reimburse them in the event of theft — this was possibly added in response to the Mt. Gox hack which resulted in the loss of 850,000 Bitcoin.

4.Weekly Investment Activities

2 investments activities took place in the blockchain industry this week, CHAMPtitles got 5 million dollars in strategic investment , Sila got 7.7 million dollars in seed round investment from Oregon Venture Fund、Madrona Venture Group、Rick Holt leader.

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