Blockchain Technology Sector Overview — Q1 2018

by Venture Scanner – research

The Blockchain Technology sector has seen a lot of buzz in the news, as the price of cryptocurrencies has seen large ups and downs over the last year.

What are the different components of Blockchain Technology and how do they make up this startup ecosystem? On our Blockchain research platform, we have classified the companies into functional categories. This blog post examines these categories and how they compare with one another through a series of graphics.

Blockchain Innovations Is the Largest Category

Let’s start off by looking at the Sector Map for the Blockchain Technology sector. As of March 2018, we have classified 1,007 Blockchain Technology startups into 12 categories which raised $6 billion in funding. The Sector Map highlights the number of companies in each category. It also shows a random sampling of companies in each category.

We can see from the Sector Map above that Blockchain Innovations is the largest category with 244 companies. This category contains companies that are working on blockchain distributed ledger technologies. Examples include increased speed for financial transactions, smart self-enforcing contracts, and cross-blockchain interoperability. Some example companies in this category include Blockstream, Filecoin, Blockstack, and Ripple.

We have seen what the different categories in Blockchain Technology are and how many companies are within each category. What about their funding and maturity in relation to one another? Let’s look at our Innovation Quadrant to find out.

Blockchain Technology Categories Are Evenly Distributed Among the Four Quadrants

Our Innovation Quadrant divides the Blockchain Technology categories into four different quadrants.

We can see from our Innovation Quadrant above that the categories are rather evenly distributed among the four quadrants. The Pioneers quadrant has the most categories at 4. The Disruptors quadrant and the Established quadrant each have 3 categories. The Heavyweights quadrant has 2 categories.

We’ve now seen how the Blockchain Technology sector is categorized. We’ve also seen the relative stages of innovation for those categories. How do these categories stack up against one another in a holistic view? Let’s look at the Total Funding and Company Count Graph.

Blockchain Innovations Category Has the Most Funding and Company Count

The graph below shows the total amount of venture funding and company count in each Blockchain Technology category.

We can see from the graph above that the Blockchain Innovations category leads the sector in total funding at $3 billion. It also has the most companies in the sector at 244 companies.

Conclusion: Blockchain Innovations Leads the Sector

The graphics above show that the Blockchain Innovations category leads the sector in funding and company count. The other categories have large potential for growth and development in this nascent market. It will be interesting to see how this sector turns out in 2018.

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments section below.

To learn more about our complete Blockchain Technology report and research platform, visit us at www.venturescanner.com or contact us at info@venturescanner.com.