With the support of:
Dr Garrick Hileman & Michel Rauchs
2017
GLOBAL CRYPTOCURRENCY
BENCHMARKING STUDY3
Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study
CONTENTS
FOREWORDS 4
RESEARCH TEAM 6
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS7
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 10
METHODOLOGY AND STUDY STRUCTURE 11
GLOSSARY 12
SETTING THE SCENE 14
EXCHANGES 28
WALLETS 48
PAYMENTS 68
MINING 86
APPENDICES106
REFERENCES AND ENDNOTES 110Forewords
FOREWORDS
The world of money and fnance is transforming before our eyes. Digitsed assets and
innovatve fnancial channels, instruments and systems are creatng new paradigms for
fnancial transacton and forging alternatve conduits of capital. The Cambridge Centre for
Alternatve Finance, since its founding in 2015, has been at the forefront of documentng,
analysing and indeed critcally challenging that digital fnancial transformaton.
This Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study is our inaugural research focused on
alternatve payment systems and digital assets. Led by Dr Garrick Hileman, it is the frst study
of its kind to holistcally examine the burgeoning global cryptocurrency industry and its key
consttuents, which include exchanges, wallets, payments and mining.
The fndings are both striking and thought-provoking. First, the user adopton of various
cryptocurrencies has really taken of, with billions in market cap and millions of wallets
estmated to have been ‘actve’ in 2016. Second, the cryptocurrency industry is both
globalised and localised, with borderless exchange operatons, as well as geographically
clustered mining actvites. Third, the industry is becoming more fuid, as the lines between
exchanges and wallets are increasingly ‘blurred’ and a multtude of cryptocurrencies, not just
bitcoin, are now supported by a growing ecosystem, fulflling an array of functons. Fourth,
issues of security and regulatory compliance are likely to remain prevalent for years to come.
I hope this study will provide value to academics, practtoners, policymakers and regulators
alike. We thank Visa very much for its generous support of independent academic research in
this important area.
Bryan Zhang
Co-founder and Executve Director (Interim)
Blockchain has received a signifcant amount of analyst and press atenton over the last few
years as this emerging technology holds signifcant potental. Use cases are many and varied:
ranging from programmable cryptocurrencies to property deeds management to provenance
tracking to votng records.
Cryptocurrencies were the frst applicaton of this technology, and in doing so introduced
an entrely new set of businesses, jobs and vocabulary to the world of payments. Visa has
been exploring the impact of these technologies to determine how this new ecosystem will
contnue to grow and evolve.
Amongst all the excitement and enthusiasm in the press there has also been some hyperbole,
and any eforts to provide a realistc snapshot of the industry should be welcomed. Visa
welcomes opportunity to sponsor research from a respected organisaton, the Judge Business
School at Cambridge University, which we trust, the reader will fnd objectve, informatve
and insightul.
Jonathan Vaux
VP, Innovaton & Strategic PartnershipsGlobal Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study
It is my great pleasure to present the frst global cryptocurrency benchmarking study. The
fndings from our study are based on the collecton of non-public data from nearly 150
companies and individuals, and this report ofers new insights on an innovatve and rapidly
evolving sector of the economy.
Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have been seen by some as merely a passing fad or
insignifcant, but that view is increasingly at odds with the data we are observing. As of April
2017, the combined market value of all cryptocurrencies is $27 billion, which represents a
level of value creaton on the order of Silicon Valley success stories like AirBnB. The advent of
cryptocurrency has also sparked many new business platorms with sizable valuatons of their
own, along with new forms of peer-to-peer economic actvity.
Next year will mark the ten-year anniversary of the publicaton of Satoshi Nakamoto’s paper
describing how a new digital fnancial instrument could be created and operated securely
with a blockchain. The growing usage and range of capabilites we document in this study
indicate that cryptocurrencies are taking on an ever more important role in the lives of a
growing number of people (and machines) around the world. As we show in this study, the
number of people using cryptocurrency today has seen signifcant growth and rivals the
populaton of small countries.
By our count, over 300 academic artcles have been published on various aspects of bitcoin
and other cryptocurrencies over the past several years. However, these works tend to take
a narrow focus. To our knowledge this is the frst global cryptocurrency study based on non-
public ‘of-chain’ data. We designed the study to present an empirical picture of the current
state of this stll maturing industry, and to explore how cryptocurrencies are being used
today. The fndings from this study will be useful to industry, academics, policymakers, media,
and anyone seeking to beter understand the cryptocurrency landscape.
This study would not have been possible without the support and partcipaton from nearly
150 cryptocurrency companies and individuals that contributed data, many of which have
elected to have their logos displayed in this report. This study also greatly benefted from
suggestons and support we received from many individuals and frms we recognise in
the Acknowledgements. We are grateful for the trust placed by study partcipants in the
University of Cambridge research team.
We are looking forward to contnuing and expanding our cryptocurrency and blockchain
research program. In a few weeks, we will also be publishing the results of a separate study
focused on the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT), which examines the use of DLT
by more established industry players as well as at public sector insttutons such as central
banks.
Thank you for your interest in this study. We will be conductng these benchmarking studies
on an annual basis, and I welcome your comments and feedback.
Garrick Hileman
g.hileman@jbs.cam.ac.uk
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