Here are our main insights, having spoken to many different people in the space and kept our ears to the ground.

Ecosystem boom

There is a large and growing ecosystem springing up around the booming blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.

Having spent time at various conferences and meetups around Asia, we’ve been struck by how fast the ecosystem is maturing. Following an initial wave of new tech companies and projects, we’re now seeing an auxiliary wave of supporting services setting up shop in the space.

The expanding market appears to be close to saturation with new crypto exchanges, blockchain-focused PR and marketing agencies and companies specialising in smart contracts, KYC, and any other service a blockchain or crypto company could ever be told they need.

With billions of dollars still pouring into new blockchain projects, it’s not hard to see why becoming a ‘crypto expert’ would be a good move for tech agencies and consultants. Over half the exhibitors at the conferences we’ve attended were providing specialist services to help companies launch ICOs, turning the ICO phenomenon — itself only a few years old — into an industry in its own right.

Traditional VCs are also recognising the disruptive tide by jumping on the bandwagon. Many have been coming to us, interested in crypto and keen to learn more. They appear to realise that participating in ICOs is their best option to invest in startups. Whether or not they’re welcome is another question entirely, and one we’ll be answering here soon.

A note on coins

We’ve been hearing a lot of chat (as ever) about Bitcoin. The Bitcoin space is generally ripe with activity and flashy titles predicting its demise or how it’ll conquer the world — sometimes both in the same week.

Whatever your opinion, the reality is that the last few months have been more tumultuous than ever before. Lots of people are joining in for the first time, and we’ve seen huge price swings and overall appreciation, which has led to value getting drained away from altcoins.

However, with Segwit2x indefinitely postponed and Bitcoin Gold failing to gain much traction, altcoins have generally seen a significant pickup in volume and prices this last week. If this sentiment continues, this could be very positive news for token sales launching in the next few months.