Inquiry firm CB Insights and Blockdata, the data company acquired by CB Insights in September of this year, accept unveiled their outset-ever annual "Blockchain fifty" list, which consists of fifty private companies applying or analyzing blockchain applied science to solve business- or consumer-related problems across various industries.

Jonathan Knegtel, CEO and co-founder of Blockdata, told Cointelegraph that the Blockchain 50 list represents an almanac ranking of the 50 most promising companies within the blockchain ecosystem. Specifically speaking, Knegtel noted that this year's companies are tackling consumer and enterprise use cases:

"This inaugural class of the Blockchain fifty consists of companies that are tackling a range of use cases in categories similar capital letter markets, custody and wallet services, exchanges, and more. These companies are paving the style for enterprise blockchain as the industry matures and moves onto full deployment, and we await forrard to monitoring their successes in the coming years."

Private companies building a path to commercial adoption

Knegtel further mentioned that assay from Blockdata and CB Insights focused exclusively on privately held companies that have raised equity funding. "Nosotros did not include open-source projects such as Bitcoin and Ethereum," he remarked.

Although open-source projects are of disquisitional importance for the blockchain ecosystem, Knegtel explained that companies such as R3, BitGo, Chainalysis and Coin Metrics were considered, all of which accept displayed success in achieving or edifice a path to commercial adoption.

For example, blockchain analytics business firm Chainalysis recently extended its certification plan to the wider customs, allowing enterprises, government employees and fiscal service professionals to complete its Chainalysis Cryptocurrency Fundamentals Certification. In improver, blockchain business firm R3 powers blockchain platforms such every bit Contour, which is used by leading financial institutions for merchandise finance transactions.

Additionally, Knegtel shared that the companies featured on the Blockchain 50 list consist of early on-stage startups forth with well-funded unicorns. For instance, Knegtel remarked that 10% of the l winners are valued at or above $1 billion every bit of their latest funding round. "The five unicorn companies on this year's list are simply a few of the major companies that are backed by a number of notable investors and are showing stable growth," he said.

U.Due south., U.M. and Switzerland stand out

While the Blockchain 50 list includes innovative companies from beyond the globe, information technology's interesting to indicate out that the majority of companies included are based in the Us. According to the "Blockchain l world map," Northward America is home to leading blockchain companies like Coinbase, ConsenSys, Abra and more. Coincidentally, the U.S. also ranks every bit the number i country for blockchain patents, even though the Chinese firm Alibaba has filed countless patents this year.

Although this is the case, Knegtel noted that 40% of the 2020 Blockchain 50 companies are based outside the United states of america. He mentioned that the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and Switzerland rank next in terms of housing innovative blockchain companies:

"The The states is home to a bulk of the Blockchain 50 companies, as it is even so the main funder of projects that accept gained traction. However, we're seeing major blockchain initiatives existence launched by corporations and governments worldwide. In fact, many of the Blockchain fifty companies are headquartered in Europe, in countries like the Uk and Switzerland."

Specifically speaking, viii of the companies listed in the Blockchain 50 report are based in the U.Chiliad. and Switzerland. This shouldn't come every bit a surprise though because contempo innovations in these regions.

For case, Switzerland's Federal Department of Finance has taken initiated a procedure for enabling blockchain-focused laws throughout the region. The Federal Council aims to enforce these laws starting as early as Baronial 2021.

The U.K. has too been making progress in encouraging cryptocurrency adoption, which may event in a blockchain-friendly region to conduct operations. For example, the U.K.'s Financial Behave Authority has recently established a temporary registration government for crypto companies seeking approval. The U.K also appear new regulatory proposals for stablecoins, along with expressing interest in a central bank digital currency.

How the Blockchain fifty were selected

As the Blockchain 50 listing contains a number of interesting findings, it's of import to point out the process backside selecting the companies mentioned.

Knegtel explained that winners were selected from a pool of ii,700 companies. In society to ensure a off-white and comprehensive listing, Knegtel explained that the companies chosen were based on a number of factors including business organisation models, market potential, competitive landscape, investor and team profiles and information submitted by the companies. "Blockdata's intimate noesis and experience in the blockchain ecosystem helped to identify the needle movers from the rest of the pack," Knegtel said.

It's also important to mention that Mosaic scores were leveraged, which is CB Insights' proprietary algorithm that measures the overall health and growth potential of private companies. These are based on CB Insights' National Scientific discipline Foundation-backed algorithm that assesses a company's health using three metrics: market, to determine how good for you the industry the company operates in; money, to evaluate the financial health of the company; and momentum, to make up one's mind how much traction the visitor generates.

Based on the current Blockchain 50 list, Knegtel shared that 32% of the cohort raised equity funding at a seed or Series A round, which shows that at that place are many young and promising companies in the blockchain ecosystem.