Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study
Dr Garrick Hileman & Michel Rauchs.
This is the first study to systematically investigate key cryptocurrency industry sectors by collecting empirical, non-public data. The study gathered survey data from nearly 150 cryptocurrency companies and individuals, and it covers 38 countries from five world regions. The study details the key industry sectors that have emerged and the different entities that inhabit them.
Some of the key findings include the following:
- The current number of unique active users of cryptocurrency wallets is estimated to be between 2.9 million and 5.8 million.
- The lines between the different cryptocurrency industry sectors are increasingly blurred: 31 per cent of cryptocurrency companies surveyed are operating across two cryptocurrency industry sectors or more, giving rise to an increasing number of universal cryptocurrency companies.
- At least 1,876 people are working full- time in the cryptocurrency industry, and the actual total figure is likely well above two thousand when large mining organisations and other organisations that did not provide headcount figures are added.
- Average security headcount and costs for payment companies and exchanges as a percentage of total headcount/operating expenses are similar, but significantly higher for wallets.