Huobi Research Weekly (Vol.146) (2020.12.21)-2020.12.27)
Abstract
This week, the overall market capitalization for the top 100 cryptocurrencies increased of 8.66%, with 36 projects increased in value to varying degrees. According to coinmarketcap, as of December 27, 2020, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies was 724.7 billion U.S. dollars, increased of 8.66%, and the total market cap of the top 100 cryptocurrencies was 693.5 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 6.55% from last week. 3 cryptocurrency projects entered the top 100 this week, namely TFUEL、ZEN and CHZ. As of December 27, 2020, Bitcoin was traded at 26272.29USD, 11.94% higher than its price last week. Ethereum was traded at 682.64USD, 7.04% higher than its price last week.
The hashrate of Bitcoin increased and Ethereum increased by this week. This week, the difficulty of mining Bitcoin not changed 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 decreased but the average block size of Ethereum increased this week.The average transaction fees of Bitcoin decreased but Ethereum increased. STORJ was the most active project on GitHub this week.
The average bitcoin Hashrate for the entire network reached 134.2EH/s, increased by 1.82% from the previous week.Average Hashrate for the entire Ethereum network was 288.57TH/s this week, increased by 2.22%. Average difficulty for mining Bitcoin this week was 18.67T, as same as last week. The average difficulty of mining Ethereum this week was 3658.44TH, increased by 2.03% from that of previous week.
In network activity, the average size of each block was 1.38MB, increased by 8.66% from last week; there were on average 2000 transactions recorded in each block, decreased by 16.39% from the previous week. The average number of transactions per block in Ethereum this week was 176.2, decreased by 6.13%. The average size of each block was 44954.85 bytes, increased by 9.78% compared to last week. Average transaction fees of Bitcoin this week was $6.423, decreased by 21.24% from last week. Average transaction fees of Ethereum this week was $2.884, incresead by 4.49%. The total number of Bitcoin addresses was 62962878, increased by 717306 (1.15%). Storj was the most active project on GitHub this week, with 7 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, SEBA got 22.5 million dollars in B round investment , ParaLink Network got strategic investment from LD Capital.
1. Weekly Market Review
1.1 Market overview
This week, the overall market capitalization for the top 100 cryptocurrencies increased of 8.66%, with 36 projects increased in value to varying degrees. According to coinmarketcap, as of December 27, 2020, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies was 724.7 billion U.S. dollars, increased of 8.66%, and the total market cap of the top 100 cryptocurrencies was 693.5 billion U.S. dollars, increased by 6.55% from last week, among which, ZIL had the largest increased of 65.54%, bringing its market cap ranking from №45 to №34, XRP had the largest decreased of -49.10%, bringing its market cap ranking from №3 to №4. In addition, there were 3 projects that entered TOP100, namely, ZEN (Horizen, increased 10.91%, Now №92), CHZ (Chiliz, increased 51.49%, Now №95), TFUEL (Theta Fuel, increased 65.46%, Now №93). As of December 27, 2020, Bitcoin was traded at 26272.29USD, 11.94% higher than its price last week. Ethereum was traded at 682.64USD, 7.04% higher than its price last week.
The overall 24h trading volume increased this week. Overall, the 24h trading volume increased by 53.01% compared with the same period of last week. In this week, 80 of the top 100 projects increased in 24h trading volume, led by STX with a weekly increase of 2393.29%; there were 20 projects decreased in their 24h trading volume, there were 12 projects that saw over 20% decrease in their 24h trading volume, while 3 projects fell by more than 50%, led by GRT, with a decreased of -83.77%.
The top 10 cryptocurrencies’ market value increased, the market share distribution remained stable. On December 27, 2020, the overall market cap of the top 10 cryptocurrencies was 633.4 billion USD, increased by 8.54% from last week, accounting for 87.39% of the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies, decreased by 0.10% from last week. The market value proportion of TOP10 project basically stable. BTC’s dominance was 67.36%, increased by 1.98% 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 December 27, 2020, the total market cap of coin projects reached 535.7 billion USD, increased by 10.95%. The average market cap of coin projects reached 11.1 billion USD, increased by 8.64%. The total market cap of platform projects reached 100.9 billion USD, increased by 3.72%. The average market cap of platform projects reached 4.03 billion USD, increased by 3.72%. The total market cap of application class projects reached 35.6 billion USD, decreased by 28.51%. The average market cap of application class projects reached 1.48 billion USD, decreased by 25.53%. The total market cap of asset-backed token projects reached 21.1 billion USD, increased by 1.67%. The average market cap of asset-backed token projects reached 7.05 billion USD, increased by 1.67%.
The market segment distribution of the top 100 cryptocurrencies remained stable. As of December 27, 2020, among the top 100 projects, the number of coin class projects increase 1, application class projects decrease 1, platform class projects and asset-backed token class remain the same.The largest overall market cap by segment was still coin projects, accounting for 77.25% 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 December 21, 2020- December 27, 2020, the average bitcoin Hashrate for the entire network reached 134.2EH/s, increased by 1.82% from the previous week.
Average Hashrate for the entire Ethereum network was 288.57TH/s this week, increased by 2.22%.
This week, the difficulty of mining Bitcoin not changed and Ethereum increased. As of December 27, 2020, average difficulty for mining Bitcoin this week was 18.67T, as same as last week. The average difficulty of mining Ethereum this week was 3658.44TH, increased by 2.03% from that of previous week.
The number of blocks in Bitcoin decreased by 5.21%,Top 5 rankings had changed. The overall distribution of the Ethereum mining pools rankings not changed, the number of blocks increased by 0.86%. In the past week, Bitcoin mined 982 blocks, decreased by 5.21% from the previous week. Among the top five pools were F2Pool、Binance Pool、BTC.com、Poolin、AntPool, these 5 pools mined 198、114、100、99 and 95 blocks respectively, accounting for 20.16%、11.61%、10.18%、10.08% and 9.67% of all Bitcoins mined this week. The Hashrate was 26.28EH/s、15.13EH/s、10.18EH/s、10.08EH/s and 9.67EH/s, respectively.
In the past week, Ethereum’s entire network mined 48935 blocks, increased by 0.86% in the previous week. The top five pools were SparkPool, Ethermine, F2pool,Zhizhu.top, and Nanopool, each mined 12301、10123、4700、3796 and 2415 blocks respectively, accounting for 25.1374%、20.6866%、9.6046%、7.7572% and 4.9351% 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 decreased but the average block size of Ethereum increased this week. According to blockchain.info, from December 21, 2020- December 27, 2020, the average size of each block was 1.38MB, increased by 8.66% from last week; there were on average 2000 transactions recorded in each block, decreased by 16.39% from the previous week.
According to etherscan, the average number of transactions per block in Ethereum this week was 176.2, decreased by 6.13%. The average size of each block was 44954.85 bytes, increased by 9.78% compared to last week.
Number of unconfirmed transactions in Bitcoin decreased by 68.80%. Number of unconfirmed transactions in Ethereum increased by3.25% from the previous week. As of December 27, 2020, the number of 7-day average unconfirmed transactions in Bitcoin network was 10857, decreased by 68.80% from last week. There were 153645.96 unconfirmed transactions in the Ethereum network, increased by 3.25% from last week, with the lowest amount of unconfirmed transactions in the week being 119389 and the highest amount being 172002.
Total transaction fees of Bitcoin decreased but Ethereum increased. As of December 27, 2020, average transaction fees of Bitcoin this week was $6.423, decreased by 21.24% from last week. Average transaction fees of Ethereum this week was $2.884, incresead by 4.49%.
The average number of distinct miners per day in Ethereum decreased. From December 21, 2020- December 27, 2020, the average number of distinct miners per day in Ethereum this week was 59.4, decreased by 4.81% from last week.
The number of nodes in Bitcoin decreased ,The number of nodes in Ethereum decreased this week. As of December 27, 2020, there were 11274 Bitcoin nodes, decreased by 1.33% compared to last week, of which 1957 nodes were in the U.S, 1781 nodes were Germany, and 203 nodes were in China(№11), each accounting for 17.36%, 15.80% of the total number of Bitcoin nodes, respectively.
As of December 27, 2020, there were 9590 Ethereum nodes, decreased by 4.09% from the previous week. Specifically, there were 2691 nodes in the U.S, 1413 nodes in Germany, and 1092 nodes in China, each accounting for 28.06%, 14.73%, 11.39% 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 December 27, 2020, the total number of Bitcoin addresses was 62962878, increased by 717306 (1.15%).
STORJ was the most active project on GitHub this week. From December 21, 2020 — December 27, 2020, Storj was the active project repository on GitHub with a total of 7 commits.
2.3 Community Activity Statistics
The top three most popular cryptocurrencies on Facebook were Tron, Bitcoin and Ethereum in descending order, with 950k, 625k and 182k fans respectively. The top three most popular cryptocurrencies on Twitter were Bitcoin, Ripple(XRP) and TRON, with 1.1million , 1million, and 553k followers, respectively.
3. Weekly Blockchain News Review
3.1 Industrial Application
1. Italian Banks Start Experiments With Digital Euro Built on Blockchain Tech
The Italian Banking Association (ABI) has started experimentation with a digital euro based on distributed ledger technology.Comprised of over 700 Italian banking institutions, the ABI said Tuesday the work would examine the technical feasibility of a digital euro and further look at “new value-added services” that would become possible due to the programmable nature of the technology.”The aim of the initiative is to proactively contribute to public debate and support banks operating in Italy as they prepare for the future,” said the ABI in a statement.The experiments will be divided into two parts: one looking at the infrastructure and distribution model to gauge technical feasibility, and another assessing how programmability could provide use cases that differentiate a central bank digital currency from existing electronic payments systems.In November, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said she believes the region’s monetary authority will move to launch a digital version of the euro in the next two to four years.
2. New protocol brings nonfungible tokens to the digital fashion industry
Nonfungible tokens are one of the biggest trends in the crypto world. And now, NFTs are coming to the world’s trendiest industry: fashion.DIGITALAX says it has launched the world’s first digital fashion NFT protocol — and the startup is confident it can propel these cutting-edge digital assets to the mainstream.The self-funded project addresses core problems surrounding programmable scarcity and the decentralized digital fashion supply chain. Its tools and technology will allow designers and developers to collaborate and develop digital materials, patterns and interoperable gaming and VR fashion assets.The DIGITALAX marketplace offers an interface for designers to auction off their creations — and these virtual garments can even be staked. The project is based on the Ethereum platform. Some of DIGITALAX’s main goals include achieving new industry standards around digital goods, open digital licenses, supply chain automation, and addressing core problems around the liquidity and stability of nonfungible tokens.
3. Everledger and Glasgow Uni team up to fight counterfeit Scotch Whisky
The University of Glasgow’s Scottish Universities Environment Research Centre, or SUERC, is joining forces with supply chain company Everledger to tackle counterfeiting within the whisky industry, according to a Dec. 18 post. Using radiocarbon dating, and unprecedented access to rare whisky samples, SUERC has developed a method to determine the age of all types of vintage whiskies, accurate to within a couple of years. Leading Scotch whisky brands, auction houses, collectors and retailers who use SUERC’s authentication service requested the addition of tamper-proofing to bottles which had already been dated.The new partnership will see SUERC fitting Everledger’s anti-tamper closures to the bottles they have authenticated. These contain near-field communication, or NFC tags, which connect to a digital certificate of the bottle’s age and provenance, held on the blockchain.
3.2 International Policies
1. Russia’s second-largest bank, VTB, pilots bank guarantees on blockchain
VTB, the second-largest bank in Russia after Sberbank, has piloted a new blockchain-based system to issue bank guarantees.According to an official announcement, VTB provided a blockchain-enabled bank guarantee to the country’s largest mobile cellular network provider, MTS.As part of the development, the bank issued MTS a guarantee for the fulfillment of payment obligations worth 392 million rubles, or $5 million. The commercial operation implemented Masterchain — an Ethereum-based blockchain prototype backed by the Russian central bank.The parties completed the transaction in real time, with VTB issuing a digital guarantee signed with a reinforced qualified signature. Then, MTS accepted the document, sending a corresponding notification to the bank.Vadim Kulik, deputy president and chairman of the VTB management board, said that the new integration allows the bank to speed up the process of issuance guarantees and significantly reduces paperwork. Blockchain deployment also eliminates the risks of fraud associated with bank guarantees, he noted.
2. US Treasury to hire crypto policy officers to combat industry crimes
The United States Department of the Treasury is looking for expert advice on cryptocurrencies to tackle legal challenges associated with the industry.The U.S. Treasury’s bureau, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, has posted two job applications for crypto policy officers. The agency is seeking professional expertise on crimes related to digital assets.The two full-time and permanent positions target experts specializing in crypto-related finance threats and risk in order to “assist in the development of policy responses to these challenges.” FinCEN expects that new policy officers will provide insights on a wide array of areas like digital identity, regulatory and financial technology.The authority said that GS-14 and GS-13 positions require at least one year of specialized experience at a related level of difficulty, in accordance with grade levels in the Federal service. FinCEN specified that salary for both positions ranges from $102,663 to $157,709 per year.FinCEN emphasized that it expects new experts to perform “extremely complex and sensitive assignments” related to crypto, including the issuance of advisories and other guidance to financial institutions.
3. Two thirds of Estonian crypto businesses lose their licenses
One of the countries lauded as being among the most crypto friendly in the European Union revoked the licenses of more than 1,000 crypto firms in 2020. According to news outlet Postimees, Estonia’s Financial Intelligence Unit, or FIU, has revoked the licenses of roughly 70% of virtual currency companies operating in the country this year. Veiko Tali, the Deputy Secretary General of the Government Committee for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, said the remaining crypto firms also required “close attention” given the potential risks:”We need to monitor the development of new technologies and manage the associated money laundering risks.The media outlet stated that there are 400 crypto-related service providers remaining with the appropriate licenses in Estonia following the purge. The financial watchdog reported that 900 such firms operated in the country last year.
4.Weekly Investment Activities
2 investments activities took place in the blockchain industry this week, SEBA got 22.5 million dollars in B round investment , ParaLink Network got strategic investment from LD Capital.
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.
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