$BTC [Chinese financial researcher: Cryptocurrency is no longer what it used to be, as its market value is 35% of the Chinese stock market]
On January 5, according to the official account of the China Financial 40 Forum, Zhong Yi of the China Financial 40 Research Institute wrote an article titled “Cryptocurrency is not what it used to be,” pointing out that the development of cryptocurrency has generated at least three different types of features. Based on the design mechanisms and functions, private cryptocurrencies can be divided into three main categories: cryptocurrency store of value, utility tokens, and stablecoins.
The first category: store-of-value cryptocurrencies, typical representatives are Bitcoin, Litecoin (LTC), etc. Although this type of cryptocurrency was originally designed to realize peer-to-peer electronic payments, it has further evolved into a digital store of value.
The second category: utility tokens, typical representatives are Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), etc. They can be divided into three categories: first, infrastructure tokens (infrastructure tokens), second, utility tokens (utility tokens), and third, financial tokens (financial tokens).
The third category: stablecoins, typical representatives are USDT, USDC, etc., which can be mainly divided into four categories: First, stablecoins linked to fiat currencies, second, stablecoins linked to commodities, third, stablecoins backed by cryptocurrencies and algorithmic stablecoins.
As of December 28, 2024, CoinGecko counted 16,022 cryptocurrencies on 1,200 cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide, with a market cap of around $3.43 trillion, and a trading volume of around $165.3 billion in the past 24 hours. In relative terms, this market cap is equivalent to 5% of the total market cap of the U.S. stock market and 35% of the Chinese stock market. At the beginning of 2014, the total global market cap of cryptocurrencies was only $10.6 billion, and the cryptocurrency market has grown more than 300 times in ten years.
