Huobi Research Weekly (Vol.179) (2021.8.16–2021.8.22）

Abstract

This week, the overall market capitalization for the top 100 cryptocurrencies increased of 4.59%, with 64 projects increased in value to varying degrees. According to coinmarketcap, as of August 22, 2021, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies was 2126.3 billion U.S.dollars, increased of 4.59%, and the total market cap of the top 100 cryptocurrencies was 2046.6 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 4.07% from last week. 4 cryptocurrency projects entered the top 100 this week, namely AR, CHSB, ICX and AUDIO. As of August 22, 2021, Bitcoin was traded at 49321.65USD, 4.87% higher than its price last week. Ethereum was traded at 3242.12USD, 1.99% lower than its price last week.

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

The average bitcoin Hashrate for the entire network reached 124.6EH/s, increased by 9.20% from the previous week. Average Hashrate for the entire Ethereum network was 617.27TH/s this week, increased by 1.80%. Average difficulty for mining Bitcoin this week was 15.55T, increased by 7.32% from last week. The average difficulty of mining Ethereum this week was 7867.22TH, increased by 1.90% from that of previous week.

In network activity, the average size of each block was 1.05MB, increased by 7.75% from last week; there were on average 1516 transactions recorded in each block, decreased by 0.72% from the previous week. The average number of transactions per block in Ethereum this week was 188.4, increased by 1.78%. The average size of each block was 70707.00 bytes, decreased by 6.04% compared to last week.. Average transaction fees of Bitcoin this week was $2.553, increased by 3.95% from last week. Average transaction fees of Ethereum this week was $11.059, decresead by 35.43% from last week. The total number of Bitcoin addresses was 75704530, increased by 358858 (0.48%). CARD was the most active project on GitHub this week, with 58 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 Ethereum.

2 investments activities took place in the blockchain industry this week, Cyclos got 1 billion dollars in seed round from CMS、Hashkey、Solana Capital etc，CYBAVO got 4 million dollars in Pre-A round investment from Alameda Research、Berggruen Holdings etc.

1. Weekly Market Review

1.1 Market overview

This week, the overall market capitalization for the top 100 cryptocurrencies increased of 4.59%, with 64 projects increased in value to varying degrees. According to coinmarketcap, as of August 22, 2021, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies was 2126.3 billion U.S.dollars, increased of 4.59%, and the total market cap of the top 100 cryptocurrencies was 2046.6 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 4.07% from last week, among which, AVAX had the largest increased of 131.75%, bringing its market cap ranking from №41 to №23, ETC had the largest decreased of 9.74%, bringing its market cap ranking from №16 to №21. In addition, there were 4 projects that entered TOP100, namely, ICX (ICON, increased 16.83%, Now №96), CHSB (SwissBorg, increased 24.70%, Now №100), AR (Arweave, increased 71.07%, Now №93), AUDIO (Audius, increased 76.25%, Now №86). As of August 22, 2021, Bitcoin was traded at 49321.65USD, 4.87% higher than its price last week. Ethereum was traded at 3242.12USD, 1.99% lower than its price last week.

The overall 24h trading volume decreased this week. Overall, the 24h trading volume decreased by 21.21% compared with the same period of last week. In this week, 49 of the top 100 projects increased in 24h trading volume, led by AVAX with a weekly increased of 1049.78%; there were 51 projects decreased in their 24h trading volume, there were 26 projects that saw over 20% decrease in their 24h trading volume, while 5 projects fell by more than 50%. The most decresed project led by BTG, with a decreased of -74.84%.

The top 10 cryptocurrencies’ market value increased, the market share distribution remained stable. On August 22, 2021, the overall market cap of the top 10 cryptocurrencies was 1707.9 billion USD, increased by 3.69% from last week, accounting for 80.32% 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 43.59%, increased by 0.12% 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 August 22, 2021, the total market cap of coin projects reached 1201.6 billion USD, increased by 5.37%. The average market cap of coin projects reached 24.0 billion USD, increased by 7.48%. The total market cap of platform projects reached 578.7 billion USD, increased by 2.17%. The average market cap of platform projects reached 24.1 billion USD, decreased by 2.08%. The total market cap of application class projects reached 200.1 billion USD, increased by 2.64%. The average market cap of application class projects reached 8.34 billion USD, increased by 2.64%. The total market cap of asset-backed token projects reached 66.0 billion USD, increased by 2.12%. The average market cap of asset-backed token projects reached 33.0 billion USD, increased by 2.12%.

The market segment distribution of the top 100 cryptocurrencies remained stable. As of August 22, 2021, among the top 100 projects, the number of coin class projects decrease 1, application class projects and asset-backed token class projects both remain the same, and platform class increase 1.The largest overall market cap by segment was still coin projects, accounting for 58.71% 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 and Ethereum increased by this week. From August 16, 2021- August 22, 2021, the average bitcoin Hashrate for the entire network reached 124.6EH/s, increased by 9.20% from the previous week.

Average Hashrate for the entire Ethereum network was 617.27TH/s this week, increased by 1.80%.

This week, the difficulty of mining Bitcoin increased and Ethereum increased. As of August 22, 2021, average difficulty for mining Bitcoin this week was 15.55T, increased by 7.32% from last week. The average difficulty of mining Ethereum this week was 7867.22TH, increased by 1.90% from that of previous week.

The number of blocks in Bitcoin increased by 4.23%,Top 5 rankings had changed. The overall distribution of the Ethereum mining pools rankings not changed, the number of blocks increased by 0.54%. In the past week, Bitcoin mined 1133 blocks, increased by 4.23% from the previous week. Among the top five pools were AntPool、ViaBTC、Poolin、BTC.com、F2Pool, these 5 pools mined 205、160、147、122 and 104 blocks respectively, accounting for 18.09%、14.12%、12.97%、10.77% and 9.18% of all Bitcoins mined this week. The Hashrate was 22.66EH/s、17.69EH/s、16.25EH/s、13.49EH/s and 11.50EH/s, respectively.

In the past week, Ethereum’s entire network mined 47979 blocks, increased by 0.54% in the previous week. The top five pools were Ethermine, Spark Pool, F2pool Old, Hiveon Pool and BeePool, each mined 10239、9889、5020、2880 and 2845 blocks respectively, accounting for 21.3406%、20.6111%、10.4629%、6.0026% and 5.9297% of all Ethereum mined this week, respectively.

2.2 Activity Statistics

The average number of transactions per block decreased but the average block size of Bitcoin increased. The average number of transactions per block increased but the average block size of Ethereum decreased this week. According to blockchain.info, from August 16, 2021- August 22, 2021, the average size of each block was 1.05MB, increased by 7.75% from last week; there were on average 1516 transactions recorded in each block, decreased by 0.72% from the previous week.

According to etherscan, the average number of transactions per block in Ethereum this week was 188.4, increased by 1.78%. The average size of each block was 70707.00 bytes, decreased by 6.04% compared to last week.

Number of unconfirmed transactions in Bitcoin increased by 8.31%. Number of unconfirmed transactions in Ethereum decreased by 2.01% from the previous week. As of August 22, 2021, the number of 7-day average unconfirmed transactions in Bitcoin network was 2997, increased by 8.31% from last week. There were 156792.21 unconfirmed transactions in the Ethereum network, decreased by 2.01% from last week, with the lowest amount of unconfirmed transactions in the week being 31470 and the highest amount being 184710.

Total transaction fees of Bitcoin increased but Ethereum decreased. As of August 22, 2021, average transaction fees of Bitcoin this week was $2.553, increased by 3.95% from last week. Average transaction fees of Ethereum this week was $11.059, decresead by 35.43% from last week.

The average number of distinct miners per day in Ethereum increased. From August 16, 2021- August 22, 2021, the average number of distinct miners per day in Ethereum this week was 48.4, increased by 0.62% from last week.

The number of nodes in Bitcoin increased by 2.89% ,The number of nodes in Ethereum increased by 12.86% this week. As of August 22, 2021, there were 12553 Bitcoin nodes, increased by 2.89% compared to last week, of which 1765 nodes were in U.S, 1718 nodes were in Germany, and 129 nodes were in China(№12), each accounting for 14.06%, 13.69% and 1.02% of the total number of Bitcoin nodes, respectively.

As of August 22, 2021, there were 5109 Ethereum nodes, increased by 12.86% from the previous week. Specifically, there were 1640 nodes in the U.S, 840 nodes in Germany, and 455 nodes in China, each accounting for 32.10%, 16.44%, 8.91% 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 August 22, 2021, the total number of Bitcoin addresses was 75704530, increased by 358858 (0.48%).

CARD was the most active project on GitHub this week. From August 16, 2021 — August 22, 2021, Cardstack was the active project repository on GitHub with a total of 58 commits.

2.3 Community Activity Statistics

The top three most popular cryptocurrencies on Facebook were Tron, Bitcoin and Ethereum in descending order, with 946k, 625k and 234k fans respectively. The top three most popular cryptocurrencies on Twitter were Bitcoin, Ripple(XRP) and Ethereum, with 3million , 1.9million, and 1.4million followers, respectively.

3. Weekly Blockchain News Review

3.1 Industrial Application

1. Major European music festival will allow fans to buy tickets using EGLD

The Untold Festival, scheduled to be held in Romania next month, has partnered with the Elrond network to allow concert goers to pay for their tickets in cryptocurrency.In an announcement, Untold said that tickets for its 2021 festival could be purchased using Elrond eGold (EGLD). Following the rollout of the ticket purchases with EGLD for Untold, Elrond CEO Beniamin Mincu said the project would be exploring “a festival economy running on semi-fungible tokens” as well as artists dropping nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, to fans from the stage. However, Untold attendees will also be able to accept NFTs from the festival “at a later time.”“Blockchain technology has immense potential for large gatherings of digital natives who for a brief period of time become part of a hyperlocal economy,” said Mincu. According to Elrond, any fees for settling ticket purchases using EGLD will be recorded on Untold’s balance sheets. Tickets start at 159 euros ($186), or roughly 1.37 EGLD at the time of publication. Elrond will also have representatives at Untold to educate festival attendees on crypto and blockchain.

2. Alibaba launches NFT marketplace for copyright trading

Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding has launched a new nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace allowing trademark holders to sell tokenized licenses to their intellectual property.The new NFT marketplace, dubbed “Blockchain Digital Copyright and Asset-Trade,” can be accessed via Alibaba’s Auction platform. NFTs launched via the platform will be issued on the “New Copyright Blockchain” — a distributed ledger technology platform centrally operated by the Sichuan Blockchain Association Copyright Committee.According to a report from Alibaba-owned news publication South China Morning Post (SCMP), the marketplace hopes to target writers, musicians, artists and game developers.The marketplace is already live, hosting several NFTs that are set to be auctioned next month. Bidders must post a deposit of 500 yuan (roughly $77) to participate in auctions. Each upcoming auction has set a reserve price of $15 each.

3. Microsoft wants to use Ethereum blockchain to fight piracy

Windows operating system and Office productivity suite have always been top performers on any software piracy platforms. So, it’s no wonder that Microsoft, the developer of both products, works hard to establish anti-piracy measures. In a new paper released by Microsoft’s research department, with the participation of researchers from Alibaba and Carnegie Mellon University, the Redmond-based software giant studied a blockchain-based incentive system to bolster anti-piracy campaigns.As the title of the research, “Argus: A Fully Transparent Incentive System for Anti-Piracy Campaigns,” suggests, Microsoft’s new system relies on the transparency aspect of blockchain technology. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Argus aims to provide a trustless incentive mechanism while protecting data collected from the open anonymous population of piracy reporters. Argus enables backtracing of pirated content to the source with a corresponding watermark algorithm, which is detailed in the paper. Also named “proof of leakage,” each report of leaked content involves an information-hiding procedure.

3.2 International Policies

1. Draft El Salvador Bitcoin banking regulations released

The central bank of El Salvador, Banco Central de Reserva (BCR), has published draft regulations on how banks should handle Bitcoin.Two documents were released for consultation on instructing banks and financial institutions how to offer Bitcoin-related services to their customers.The first, titled “Guidelines for the Authorization of Operation of the Digital Wallet Platform for Bitcoin and Dollars” (in Spanish), defines BTC as legal tender according to the recently drafted Bitcoin Law which was passed by El Salvador’s legislature on June 9 and will see the country formally adopt the digital asset on September 7.The second document titled “Technical Standards to Facilitate the Application of the Bitcoin Law” is a longer and more detailed version of the first document.Financial entities must apply to the central bank to offer digital wallets, the guidelines stated. Applications must detail the type of product being offered, and include target market details, risk assessments, charges to customers, education provisions for customers, and complaint procedures.

2. Ukraine’s state security shuts down illegal crypto exchanges

Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has shut down several crypto exchanges reportedly involved in illegal financial transactions since the start of 2021.According to a statement by the SBU on Wednesday, the network of “clandestine cryptocurrency exchanges” were based in the country’s capital Kyiv and collectively processed a monthly turnover of $1.1 million in funds linked to criminal activity.The SBU’s announcement claimed that the illegal crypto exchanges provided anonymous transaction services, which made them a money laundering risk. Indeed, Ukraine’s state security service stated that some individuals funneled funds through these platforms to organize protests across the country.According to the SBU, these illegal funds came from e-wallets linked to banned Russian payment processors such as Qiwi, WebMoney and Yandex.Ukraine’s state security service also reportedly recovered computers containing evidence of suspected illegal activity and allegedly forged incorporation documents for the companies during raids of the crypto exchange platforms.

3. DBS wins regulatory approval in Singapore for crypto payment services

Singapore’s largest bank, DBS Bank, has expanded its scope of supported cryptocurrency services by scoring another regulatory approval.DBS Bank’s brokerage arm, DBS Vickers (DBSV), has received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to provide digital payment token services as a payment institution. The approval is granted under Singapore’s Payment Services Act, paving the way for DBSV’s payment license. Once licensed, the firm will be able to directly support asset managers and companies trading in digital payment tokens through DBS Bank’s cryptocurrency-enabled exchange, DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx).In conjunction with the MAS approval announcement, DBS also disclosed that DDEx will begin operating 24/7 starting next Monday, allowing investors to trade on the platform at any time. The exchange initially operated only during Asian trading hours, the company said. Launched in late 2020, DDEx supports trading of major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), targeting only institutional investors.

4.Weekly Investment Activities

2 investments activities took place in the blockchain industry this week, Cyclos got 1 billion dollars in seed round from CMS、Hashkey、Solana Capital etc，CYBAVO got 4 million dollars in Pre-A round investment from Alameda Research、Berggruen Holdings etc.

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