Huobi Research Weekly（Vol.92）(12.09–12.15)

17 min readDec 17, 2019

Abstract

This week, the overall market capitalization for the top 100 cryptocurrencies decreased of 4.88%, with 77 projects decreased in value to varying degrees. According to coinmarketcap, as of December 15th, 2019, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies was 195.1 billion U.S. dollars, decreased by 4.88%, and the total market cap of the top 100 cryptocurrencies was 192.6 billion U.S. dollars,decreased by 5.02% from last week. 4 cryptocurrency projects entered the top 100 this week, namely SLV、ZEN、FAB and MB. As of December 15th, 2019, Bitcoin was traded at 7152.30 USD, 5.38% lower than its price last week. Ethereum was traded at 143.11 USD, 5.32% lower than its price last week. The market segment distribution of the top 100 cryptocurrencies remained stable.

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

the average bitcoin Hashrate for the entire network reached 92.27EH/s, decreased by 2.08% from the previous week.Average Hashrate for the entire Ethereum network was 171.93TH/s this week, increased by 0.047%. Average difficulty for mining Bitcoin this week was 12.870T, decreased by 0.62% from last week. The average difficulty of mining Ethereum this week was 2579.318TH, increased by 0.89% from previous week.

In network activity, the average size of each block was 1.03MB, increased 4.04% form last week; there were on average 2097 transactions recorded in each block, decreased by 0.94% from the previous week. the average number of transactions per block in Ethereum this week was 106.5, decreased by 1.30%. The average size of each block was 23994.14 bytes, decreased by3.34% compared to last week. As of December 15th, 2019, average transaction fees of Bitcoin this week was $0.377, decreased by 21.29% from last week. Average transaction fees of Ethereum this week was $0.0891, decresead by 6.11%.. ZSC was the most active project on GitHub this week, with 86 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.

3 investments activities took place in the blockchain industry this week, LoMostar got bought by Lemon Game, Pubnet technology got bought by BINENG Foundation, Proof of Impact got A round investment from Franklin Templeton Investments.

1. Weekly Market Review

1.1 Market overview

This week, the overall market capitalization for the top 100 cryptocurrencies decreased of 4.88%, with 77 projects decreased in value to varying degrees. According to coinmarketcap, as of December 15th, 2019, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies was 195.1 billion U.S. dollars, decreased by 4.88%, and the total market cap of the top 100 cryptocurrencies was 192.6 billion U.S. dollars,decreased by 5.02% from last week, among which, Karatgold Coin had the largest increased of 85.36%, bringing its market cap ranking from №52 to №38, EDUCare Shares had the largest decreased of -31.23%, bringing its market cap ranking from №49 to №60. In addition, there were 4 projects that entered TOP100, namely, Silverway (SLV, increased 47.61%, Now №100), Horizen (ZEN, increased 20.66%, Now №89), FABRK (FAB, increased 18.46%, Now №98), MineBee (MB, decreased 4.38%, Now №99). As of December 15th, 2019, Bitcoin was traded at 7152.30 USD, 5.38% lower than its price last week. Ethereum was traded at 143.11 USD, 5.32% lower than its price last week.

The overall 24h trading volume increased this week. Overall, the 24h trading volume increased by 13.20% compared with the same period of last week. In this week, 57 of the top 100 projects increased in 24h trading volume, led by HC with a weekly increase of 1145.66%; there were 43 projects decreased in their 24h trading volume, there were 25 projects that saw over 20% decrease in their 24h trading volume, while 10 projects fell by more than 50%, led by 999, with a decreased of 96.28%.

The top 10 cryptocurrencies’ market value decreased, the market share distribution remained stable. On December 15th, 2019, the overall market cap of the top 10 cryptocurrencies was 172.6 billion USD, decreased by 5.20% from last week, accounting for 88.51% of the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies, decreased by 0.30% from last week. The market value proportion of TOP10 project basically stable. BTC’s dominance was 66.36%, decreased by 0.35% from last week.

1.2 Segment Analysis

Among TOP 100 cryptocurrency project segments, the total market cap of Asset-backed token project got the largest increase. The average market cap of Application projects got the largest decrease. As of December 15th, 2019,the total market cap of coin projects reached 144.8 billion USD, decreased by 5.07%. The average market cap of coin projects reached 4.26 billion USD, decreased by 5.07%. The total market cap of platform projects reached 23.7 billion USD, decreased by 7.19%. The average market cap of platform projects reached 0.76 billion USD, increased by 1.79%. The total market cap of application class projects reached 19.41 billion USD, decreased by 3.40%. The average market cap of application class projects reached 0.62 billion USD, decreased by 12.74%. The total market cap of asset-backed token projects reached 4.60 billion USD, increased by 1.90%. The average market cap of asset-backed token projects reached 1.15 billion USD, increased by 1.90%.

The market segment distribution of the top 100 cryptocurrencies remained stable. As of December 15th, 2019, among the top 100 projects, the number of coin class projects remain the same, application class projects increased 3, platform class projects decreased 3 and asset-backed token class remain the same. The largest overall market cap by segment was still coin projects, accounting for 75.20% 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 the hashrate of Ethereum decreased by this week. From December 9th, 2019 — December 15th, 2019, the average bitcoin Hashrate for the entire network reached 92.27EH/s, decreased by 2.08% from the previous week.

Average Hashrate for the entire Ethereum network was 171.93TH/s this week, increased by 0.047%.

This week, the difficulty of mining Bitcoin decreased and the difficulty of mining Ethereum increased. As of December 15th 2019, average difficulty for mining Bitcoin this week was 12.870T, decreased by 0.62% from last week. The average difficulty of mining Ethereum this week was 2579.318TH, increased by 0.89% from that of previous week.

The number of blocks in Bitcoin decreased by 5.56%. Top 5 rankings had changed. The overall distribution of the Ethereum mining pools rankings remain the same, the number of blocks dereased 1.66%. In the past week, Bitcoin mined 1002 blocks, decreased 5.56% from the previous week. Among the top five pools were F2Pool、Poolin、BTC.com、AntPool、ViaBTC these 5 pools mined 177、172、137、97 and 64 blocks respectively, accounting for 17.66% 、17.17 %、13.67%、9.68% and 6.39 % of all Bitcoins mined this week. The Hashrate was 16.24EH/s、15.78EH/s、12.57EH/s、8.90EH/s and 5.87EH/s。 respectively.

In the past week, Ethereu’s entire network mined 40521 blocks, decreased 1.66% from the previous week. The top five pools were SparkPool, Ethermine, F2pool_2, Nanopool and Zhizhu.top, each mined 13276、9060、4449、2807 and 2065 blocks respectively, accounting for 32.7633%、22.3588%、10.9795%、6.9273% and 5.0961% 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 decreased. The average number of transactions per block decreased and the average block size of Ethereum decreased this week. According to blockchain.info, from December 9th, 2019-December 15th, 2019, the average size of each block was 1.03MB, increased 4.04% form last week; there were on average 2097 transactions recorded in each block, decreased by 0.94% from the previous week.

According to etherscan, the average number of transactions per block in Ethereum this week was 106.5, decreased by 1.30%. The average size of each block was 23994.14 bytes, decreased by3.34% compared to last week.

Number of unconfirmed transactions in Bitcoin increased by 25.34%. Number of unconfirmed transactions in Ethereum increased by 14.85% from the previous week. As of December 15th 2019, the number of 7-day average unconfirmed transactions in Bitcoin network was 4936, increased by 25.34% from last week. There were 33069.7 unconfirmed transactions in the Ethereum network, increased by 14.85% from last week, with the lowest amount of unconfirmed transactions in the week being 10004 and the highest amount being 41505.

Total transaction fees of Bitcoin decreased. Total transaction fees of Ethereum decreased. As of December 15th, 2019, average transaction fees of Bitcoin this week was $0.377, decreased by 21.29% from last week. Average transaction fees of Ethereum this week was $0.0891, decresead by 6.11%.

The average number of distinct miners per day in Ethereum decreased by 4.80% from last week. From December 9th, 2019-December 15th, 2019, the average number of distinct miners per day in Ethereum this week was 55.5, decreased 4.80% from last week.

The number of nodes in Bitcoin increased and the number of Ethereum decreased this week. As of December 15th, 2019, there were 9538 Bitcoin nodes, increased by 1.04% compared to last week, of which 2461 nodes were in the U.S, 1937 nodes were in Germany, and 278 nodes were in China(№8), each accounting for 25.80%, 20.31% and 2.93% of the total number of Bitcoin nodes, respectively.

As of December 15th, 2019, there were 7063 Ethereum nodes, decreased by 17.03% from the previous week. Specifically, there were1857 nodes in the U.S, 1136 nodes in China, and 656 nodes in Germany, each accounting for 26.29%, 16.08%,9.29% of total number of nodes, respectively.

This week, the growth rate for new addresses of Bitcoin and Ethereum both increased. According to the data on blockchain.info, as of December 15th, 2019, the total number of Blockchain accounts reached 44187442, increased by 208595 (0.47%) this week.

According to the data on etherchain, as of December 15th, 2019, the total number of Ethereum addresses was 79912440 increased by 674951 (0.85%) this week.

ZSC was the most active project on GitHub this week. From December 2nd, 2019-December 15th, 2019, ZSC was the active project repository on GitHub with a total of 86 commits.

2.3 Community Activity Statistics

The top three most popular cryptocurrencies on Facebook were Tron, Bitcoin and Ethereum in descending order, with 972k, 512k and 156k fans respectively. The top three most popular cryptocurrencies on Twitter were Bitcoin, Ripple(XRP) and TRON, with 995k, 942k, and 49.1k followers, respectively.

3. Weekly Blockchain News Review

3.1 Industrial Application

1. Blockchain Supply Chain Platform Gains Metals Giant Glencore as Member

British-Swiss commodity trading and mining company Glencore will use an IBM-developed blockchain solution to track cobalt. In a press release issued on Dec. 12, Glencore confirmed it had joined the Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network (RSBN), a joint partnership between various major corporations leveraging the technology to improve supply chain transparency. “RSBN plays a key role in advancing the sustainable partnership between the producers of commodities that will enable the transition to a low-carbon economy and key consumers around the world,” Nico Paraskevas, Glencore head of marketing for copper and cobalt, commented in the press release. Glencore has shown interest in blockchain before. As Cointelegraph reported, in October the firm was one of seven metals giants to form the Mining and Metals Blockchain Initiative, aiming to collaborate on proof-of-concept solutions going forward.

2. TikTok Owner Reportedly Working With Chinese State Media on Blockchain

Owner of major social media app TikTok, ByteDance, has launched a joint venture with state-owned Chinese media group and ThePaper.cn operator Shanghai Dongfang Newspaper to develop business models that include blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI), Bloomberg reported on Dec. 14. The joint venture was launched in the capital of eastern China’s Shandong province, Jinan, on Dec. 10 with a registered capital of 10 million yuan ($1.43 million). ByteDance owns 49% of the venture while the rest is owned by the Chinese media group.TikTok sees 500 million monthly active users and is currently the second most downloaded app in the Apple App Store in the United States. The app’s short video feed is completely managed by a purpose-built AI to predict and deliver content that the user will likely prefer. While it’s not yet clear how ByteDance and TikTok could benefit from blockchain technology, one possible use-case could be for digital media data verification. For instance, U.S. law enforcement Axon Enterprise aims to test blockchain for its body cameras to fight Deepfake AI-generated videos.

3. Ripple-Based Remittance Firm SendFriend Claims to Save Up to 80% in Fees

Blockchain-based money transfer startup SendFriend utilizes Ripple’s technology to save up to 80% in remittance fees, according to a blog post published on Dec. 12.SendFriend uses Ripple’s xRapid product for cross-border payments, converting between the United States dollar, XRP and Philippine pesos and circumventing the longer process of traditional banking systems. SendFriend’s money transfer app aimed at reducing annual remittance fees for cross-border Filipino workers claims to lower such transaction costs by up to 75%. What makes it possible, according to the startup’s CEO, David Lighton, is RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) technology.With ODL, RippleNet’s users can utilize digital token XRP to bridge two currencies in three seconds. “We can now source liquidity, on-demand and depress those transaction costs by up to 75%,” said Lighton, and further added that the firm managed to reduce charge up to 2%.

4. US Health Insurance Giant Piloting Blockchain to Secure Medical Data

Anthem, the second-largest health insurance company in the United States plans to use blockchain technology to secure medical data of all 40 million members over the next three years.On Dec. 12, Forbes reported that Anthem plans to use blockchain technology to give patients secure access to their medical data, while also giving them the possibility to share that data as they see fit. he company is currently running a pilot test to smaller groups of members, who can use a mobile app to scan a QR code, and instantly allow different healthcare providers to access their health records for a limited amount of time.

3.2 International Policies

1. Swiss Government Quashes ‘E-Franc,’ Says Current Risks Outweigh Benefits

The government of cryptocurrency-friendly Switzerland has shot down the idea of issuing a digital Swiss franc, for now.According to a Dec. 13 press release published on the Federal Council’s website, the Federal Council approved a report exploring the opportunities and risks of issuing a digital form of the country’s national currency, the franc. Following an analysis, the Federal Council concluded that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) cannot meet expectations for payment efficiency, effective monetary policy, and a more stable financial system. The council said:“Universally accessible central bank digital currency would bring no additional benefits for Switzerland at present. Instead, it would give rise to new risks, especially with regard to financial stability.”The Swiss National Bank (SNB) shares the government’s view, arguing that the new risks to monetary policy and financial stability would pose a major challenge. As such, the government only sees the further development of a CBDC to be reasonable were it to be restricted to financial market players, and not accessible to the general public.

2. Government of Abkhazia to Intensify Identification of Crypto Mining Farms

Abkhazia, an autonomous region in northwest Georgia, is planning to intensify the works on the identification of cryptocurrency mining farms in the region.According to a news release published on the Cabinet of Ministers’ website on Dec. 12, Prime Minister of Abkhazia Valeri Bganba held a meeting dedicated to the current state of the region’s electricity grids. The meeting saw the presence of representatives of the State Security Service, the Ministry of Economy, and the state electric utility Chernomorenergo RUE, among others. During the meeting, some of the participants brought to notice that the significantly increased loads on electric networks are aggravated by the emergence of ever-greater number of illegal cryptocurrency mining farms connected to Chernomorenergo. In recent days, indicators have ostensibly exceeded the 40 Mwatt mark.As such, Bganba gave the meeting participants the directive to intensify the works on the identification of cryptocurrency mining farms in the region. Apart from that, Bganba requested that the government begin the development of a regulatory framework, which would enable determining the limitation of energy consumption for each consumer of Chernomorenergo’s electric grids. The Ministry of Economy of Abkhazia developed a law draft on the settlement of cryptocurrency mining activities in the country, in late June. At the time, the Ministry said that the drafted bill had been approved and sent to the Cabinet of Ministers. The proposed regulation defines legal, economic, organizational and technical rules for the implementation of cryptocurrency mining activities in the region.

3. Majority Leader of California State Assembly Pushes for Legal Certainty for Blockchain

Speaking at Elev8CON in Las Vegas on Dec. 10, Majority Leader of the California State Assembly Ian Calderon discussed plans to bring greater legal certainty for blockchain technology to the State of California. California is the most populous of the United States, with about 40 million residents. Were it to be an independent country, it would have the fifth-largest economy in the world. Calderon explained, “The government plays a huge role in the future of the blockchain industry. We need to create consumer confidence to let people know that this industry is safe. Government regulation provides this.” On Feb. 15th 2018, Calderon introduced Assembly Bill 2658 to provide legal assurance around the use of blockchain technology. Bill 2658 is tasked with researching and providing documentation on blockchain’s potential uses, risks and benefits to state governments and businesses.More importantly, the bill established a working group under the California Government Operations Agency (GovOps). The group, which is comprised of individuals interested in advancing blockchain, is expected to issue a detailed report to the California state legislature next year.“The working group is creating legislation to establish best uses, practices and regulation of blockchain in California. We plan to write a report and provide this to the state legislature to craft policy around blockchain,” Calderon told Cointelegraph.

3.3 Technological Breakthrough

1. Study: China’s BTC Miners Control 66% of Global Hash Rate

Chinese Bitcoin (BTC) miners are now responsible for controlling as much as 66% of global hash rate, a new report claims.China’s Sichuan province is accounting for over half the global hash rate, according to a study by London-based digital asset manager CoinShares, Reuters reports Dec. 11.Hash rate is a measure referring to the overall computing power involved in validating transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. As reported, more power suggests greater network security as well as interest in the profitability potential of mining Bitcoin. According to the report, the Chinese share of hash rate has surged from 60% in June 2019 and is the highest recorded by CoinShares since the firm started monitoring the measure in 2017.While Sichuan province reportedly accounts for over 50% of the global hash rate, other leading crypto mining centers in China include the provinces of Yunnan, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, the report notes. Other hubs include sites in the United States, Russia and Kazakhstan, CoinShares reportedly wrote.

4.Weekly Investment Activities

Huobi Research

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Huobi Research was founded in April 2016 and started research and explorations in various aspects in Blockchain area since March 2018. We cover various fields such as Blockchain technology research, industry analysis, application innovation and economic model explorations. We aim to establish a research platform and to offer theoretical foundations as well as judgements of trends in Blockchain to the public, ultimately promoting the development of the Blockchain industry.

Huobi Research Weekly aims to provide participators of the cryptocurrency market with the most up-to-date and comprehensive database to help them facilitate decision-making process.

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