San Francisco, CA, June 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SharesPost, a leading provider of private company liquidity solutions and private capital markets research, has published a new research report detailing the broad market opportunity for the blockchain industry. The report, titled Investment Strategies for Blockchain: A $2.5 Trillion Opportunity, analyzes specific blockchain use cases across 20 industry verticals and estimates a value creation opportunity exceeding $2.5 trillion over the next ten years.
The market opportunity for blockchain technology over the next decade is notable in the following verticals:
- Supply Chain/IoT: $550 billion
- Identity/Security: $420 billion
- Financial Services: $400 billion
- E-commerce: $300 billion
- Infrastructure: $200 billion
Rohit Kulkarni, Managing Director and Head of Research at SharesPost, said: “Blockchain has always been deemed a disruptive technology, but in quantifying its actual market potential, we hope/plan to showcase the possible impact this technology could have over the next several years. As such, blockchain is becoming increasingly important to individual and institutional investors who are looking to enter the markets most impacted by the technology.”
The report also highlights four different ways both individual and institutional investors can approach markets affected by blockchain technology. These include:
- Investing in cryptocurrencies. The report highlights that the top five traded currencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin) alone are now worth more than $500 billion compared to less than $100 billion a year ago.
- Investing in publicly traded blockchain proxies. A possibly less risky option, some notable companies leveraging blockchain include credit card companies such as MasterCard and Visa which are using the technology to minimize costs and delays in processing payments across borders, and IBM, which is working with other major companies to create blockchain applications for the supply chain.
- Investing in tokens via Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). Blockchain startups raised a total of $6 billion through 500 ICOs in 2017. Some of the largest ICOs include Hdac, a South Korean IoT blockchain startup ($258 million), Filecoin, a blockchain data storage startup ($257 million), and Tezos, a blockchain platform for smart contracts ($232 million).
- Investing in blockchain startups. Accredited investors can access blockchain startups through the venture capital funds backing the companies or through the secondary market. Among blockchain startups in the United States, Circle and Coinbase have raised the most money through venture capital, followed by Ripple, Bitpay, and Chain.com.
For more information on blockchain’s market opportunity, view the report here: Investment Strategies for Blockchain: A $2.5 Trillion Opportunity.
For more information on SharesPost, visit sharespost.com.
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SharesPost Digital Asset Group CEO John Wu and SharesPost Managing Director and Head of Research Rohit Kulkarni are available for interview.
About SharesPost:
SharesPost’s mission is to create liquidity for the private growth asset class. In 2009, SharesPost launched the first online secondary market for private technology company shares. Since then, SharesPost has connected thousands of buyers and sellers in more than $4 billion worth of transactions in the shares of more than 200 leading technology companies.
The SharesPost platform now also enables clients to access a variety of private market investment and liquidity solutions including (i) research and data on leading private technology companies, (ii) the SharesPost Private Growth Index, (iii) the SharesPost100 Fund, a registered mutual fund providing all investors with easy access to the asset class, and (iv) SharesPost Lending, which enables private company shareholders to borrow against their shares. In 2017, SharesPost managed its first Initial Coin Offering and in 2018 announced plans to integrate trading of digital securities into the SharesPost platform.
SharesPost is a FINRA-registered broker-dealer, SEC registered Alternative Trading System and Registered Investment Advisor. For more information, visit SharesPost.com.