Crypto Valley reaffirms its standing as the most mature global blockchain hub with a record 2021 valuation of its Top 50 companies at over half a trillion USD ($611.8bn), boasting fourteen Unicorns.
The CV VC Top 50 Report shows that Crypto Valley, which includes Switzerland and Liechtenstein, is flourishing because of an exemplary regulatory jurisdiction, a determined decentralized mindset, and an all-encompassing favorable business environment.
- Top 50 valuation is $611.8bn, at Dec 31st 2021, an increase of 464% since the end of 2020 demonstrating that Crypto Valley continues to be the globally preferred jurisdiction for substantive projects and the hub of choice for disruptors who are changing the way the world interacts and transacts
- Unicorn count has nearly doubled at fourteen, including a Hectocorn ($100bn+) and three Decacorns ($10bn+)
- As a world leader in progressive regulation, Switzerland enacted its DLT law in August 2021, giving a solid legal foundation for the issuance of digital securities and establishing the globally leading license for Digital Securities Trading Facilities
- Due to the regulatory clarity, firms are racing to establish in Switzerland because they know where they stand
- Zug, with 528 companies, continues to be the epicenter of Crypto Valley which in 2021 surpassed more than 1,100 blockchain companies (1,128)
- 6000 employees work directly in crypto and blockchain companies, thousands more work for and with these companies remotely across the globe
World-first in regulatory excellence, corporate and legal talent, well-experienced service providers, crypto-friendly banks, and academic institutions, two of which are ranked in the top 10 worldwide, continue to drive Crypto Valley’s meteoric growth.
While the Top 50 list is dominated by protocols, others such as Switzerland’s regulated crypto banks, Sygnum and Seba Bank, and brokerage Bitcoin Suisse are nearing billion-dollar valuations. All had recent significant investments from some of the world’s most prolific tech VCs. Concurrently, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are witnessing cross-industry fertilization between legacy and new world financial sectors. As a result, Crypto Valley demonstrates that the bridge between the old and the new world is now a ‘two-way street’, such as Deutsche Börse Group acquiring a majority stake in Crypto Finance AG.
It is not just Crypto Valley’s Unicorn herd that highlights the valley’s critical role in the global stride toward decentralization, Web3, and the oncoming fourth industrial revolution. The Crypto Valley’s booming rise is prodigious because of the balance between technical expertise, precise determination, supportive banking and business infrastructures, and having a stable regulatory environment where all participants know where they stand.
In addition to the exemplary regulatory environment,, there is a welcoming Swiss banking landscape where increasingly legacy banks, bank crypto and blockchain businesses. As a global financial center, Switzerland manages around one-quarter of the world’s cross-border assets. A recent survey has shown that over 55% of Swiss banks plan to offer digital assets services over the next 1-3 years.
Such a progressive environment is a testament to why Switzerland is the only jurisdiction in the world where it is possible to incorporate a company, bank, pay taxes, and hire professional services exclusively using cryptocurrencies.
The Report highlights the near doubling of Unicorns, the proliferation of blockchain in the financial industry, the emergence of new asset classes such as DeFi and NFTs, and new universes building from the catalyst tech known as blockchain.
The Crypto Valley Top 50 Report is a periodical analysis of the top 50 best-performing companies in Crypto Valley, based on market valuation, funding, and the number of employees.
Top 50 Crypto and Blockchain Companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein
AllianceBlock
At AllianceBlock, we are bridging the gap between decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance (TradFi), by remedying issues that exist in both spheres and linking them more closely together. We see the future of finance as an integrated system in which the best of both worlds can work together to increase capital flows and technological innovation.
Anoma
Anoma is a sovereign, proof-of-stake blockchain protocol that enables private, asset-agnostic cash and private bartering among any number of parties. Anoma is part of a growing global effort to impede non-consensual usage of data by third parties, prevent nation-states from weaponizing the financial system, and empower humankind to solve existentiallythreatening collective action problems that transcend national borders.
Aragon
Create value without borders or intermediaries. Aragon is being built because so that decen-tralized organizations can solve the world’s worst problems. Aragon is a project that aims to disintermediate the creation and mainte-nance of organizational structures by using blockchain technology. The company wants to empower people across the world to easily and securely manage their organizations. Aragon provides the tools for anyone to become an entrepreneur and run their own organization, to take control of their own lives.
Atomyz
Atomyze’s vision is to facilitate the tokenization of commodities, enabling them to be traded in a simple and secure way, and bring new access, increased liquidity, optimized efficiency, and improved transparency to the industry, within a seamless ecosystem. To make this a reality we have established key partnerships to create a nextgeneration ecosystem, with Hyperledger Fabric distributed ledger technology (DLT) at its core.
Bancor
Bancor introduced the first-ever decentralized exchange (DEX) based on automated market makers (AMMs). The protocol offers users safe and simple access to DeFi yields while enabling algorithmic, decentralized trading for integrated tokens. Bancor is the only decentralized trading protocol that allows depositors to earn money with single-token exposure and zero risk of impermanent loss.
Cardano
Cardano is a decentralised public blockchain and cryptocurrency project and is fully open source. Cardano is developing a smart contract platform which seeks to deliver more advanced features than any protocol previously developed.
Casper
The Casper Network is a fully decentralized (permis-sionless), scalable, and highly secure Proof-of-Stake layer 1 blockchain. Casper has solved the layer 1 trilemma; it is secure, fully decentralized, and scalable/fast. Powered by Highway, an inno-vative, correct-by-construction (CBC) Casper-ba-sed Proof-of-Stake consensus protocol, Casper is leveraging popular workflows, innovative deve-loper tools and multiple programming langua-ges. Casper makes blockchain services easier to use, more upgradable and more predictable, thus removing barriers to mainstream adoption.
Concordium
When launched in 2021, the Concordium bloc-kchain will be a Level-1, Proof-of-stake, regula-tory-compliant, enterprisegrade blockchain with verified identity of users built-in at the protocol level and with application of zero-knowledge proofs. Technological innovations will enhance its performance and allow the blockchain to be fast without compromising security, be scalable, offer interoperability and it’s partial synchronicity adjust to the speed of the internet and ensure that Concordium won´t break under any circumstances.
COSMOS
Interchain Foundation, a Swiss non-profit, which is responsible for co-ordinating fundraising and allocating funds to get the network off the ground. The foundation will suggest a distribution of Atoms according to the results of the fundraiser. Users will ultimately decide the distribution for them-selves when they run the software. The Interchain Foundation will suggest that 5% of the Atoms go to its initial donors, 10% go to the Interchain Foundation, 10% go to the company developing most of the software, and the remaining 75% to be distributed according to the results of the private and publicfundraisers.
DFINITY
The DFINITY Foundation is a not-for-profit organi-zation based in Zurich, Switzerland, that oversees research centers in Palo Alto, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Zurich. Our mission is to build, promote, and maintain the Internet Computer — and by doing so, improve the world. The Internet Computer extends the functionality of the internet from connecting billions of people to also providing millions of developers and entrepreneurs with a public compute platform — creating a revo-lutionary new way to build software, DeFi and open internet services. In turn, this generational shift in computing aims to return the internet back to its free and open roots.
DIA
DIA (Decentralised Information Asset) is an open-source, financial information platform that utilizes crypto-economic incentives to source and validate data. Market actors can supply, share, and use financial and digital asset data. DIA’s mission is to democratize financial data, similar to what Wikipedia has done in the broader information space. DIA data sources and methodologies are transparent and publicly accessible to everyone.
Elrond
Elrond is a highly scalable, fast, and secure blockchain platform for distributed apps, enterprise use cases, and the new internet economy. Its software seeks to incentivize a distributed network of computers to run a smart contract platform that aims to prioritize scalability and low transaction fees. Elrond brings a 1000x improvement in blockchain speed, scale, cost, and user experience.
Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downti-me, censorship, fraud or third-party interference. These apps run on a custom built blockchain, an enormously powerful shared global infrastructure that can move value around and represent the ownership of property. This enables developers to create markets, store registries of debts. or promises, move funds in accordance with instruc-tions given long in the past (like a will or a futures contract) and many other things that have not been invented yet, all without a middleman or counterparty risk.
Golem
Golem is a global, open source, decentralized supercomputer that anyone can access. It is made up of the combined power of users machines, from PCs to entire data centers. Golem creates a decentralized sharing economy of computing power and supplies software developers with a flexible, reliable and cheap source of computing power.
HDAC
Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, Hdac Technology AG is a blockchain technology company that aims to be a digital currency and asset hub that provides a platform where fiat currencies around the world can be securely issued and enables businesses to interoperate with each other. Rizon Blockchain has strong network background and is capable of boosting the inflow of the ecosystem participants and the diversification of business.
ICON
The ICON project is building one of the largest decentralized networks in the world. Promo-tion and development of new technologies and applications, especially in the areas of new open and decentralized software architectures. In the foreground – but not exclusively – is the promotion and development of the so-called ICON protocol and the corresponding techno-logies, as well as the promotion and support of applications using the ICON protocol.
Liquity
Liquity is a decentralized borrowing protocol that allows you to draw 0% interest loans against Ether used as collateral. Loans are paid out in LUSD – a USD pegged stablecoin, and need to maintain a minimum collateral ratio of only 110%. Liquity creates a more capital-efficient and user-friendly way to borrow stablecoins. Furthermore, Liquity is governance-free, ensuring that the protocol remains decentralized.
Lisk
Develop and publish blockchain applications with your own sidechains on the open-source Lisk Platform. Promotion of new technology developments and applications, in particular promotion and maintenance of new open decen-tralized software architectures. In the foreground – but not exclusively – is the promotion and development of the so-called Lisk protocol and the corresponding technology as well as the promotion and support of applications using the Lisk protocol.
Minima
Minima is a secure, scalable, and completely decentralized public blockchain, that can run completely on a mobile or IoT device without any third parties – no external miners, validators, or producers. Minima will launch its mainnet in 2022 and has the ambition to have millions of nodes, creating a decentralized web architecture for the future.
NEAR Protocol
NEAR Protocol is a scalable blockchain designed to provide the performance and user experience necessary to bridge the gap to mainstream adoption of decentralized applications. Unlike other next-generation blockchains, this network has been built from the ground up to be the easiest in the world for both developers and their end-users while still providing the scalability necessary to serve those users.
Partisia Blockchain
Partisia Blockchain is the world’s most advanced zeroknowledge blockchain. Its WEB 3.0 public blockchain is built for trust, transparency, privacy, and speed of light finalization. Partisia Blockchain is a unique combination of a high-performance blockchain that functions as a bedrock for efficient, scalable, and robust orchestration of MPC. This combination of blockchain and MPC technologies provide an optimal foundation for native privacy-preserving applications.
SKALE
SKALE is built to bring the power of Ethereum to billions of users. It is a 100% decentralized network that will bring Web3, NFTs, and DeFi to users through a world of interconnected, limitless SKALE chains. Developers use SKALE’s highly configurable platform to run smart contracts 100% on SKALE chains without centralized dependencies. Plus, SKALE’s unique pooled security model with ~$1B staked enables developers to deliver a high-speed, seamless user experience without gas fees or latency.
Solana
Solana is a highly functional open source project that banks on blockchain technology’s permis-sionless nature to provide decentralized finan-ce (DeFi) solutions. While the idea and initial work on the project began in 2017, Solana was officially launched in March 2020 by the Sola-na Foundation with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Solana protocol is designed to facilitate decentralized app (DApp) creation.
Status
The Status Network builds decentralized technologies ranging from protocol-level infrastructure to consumer applications, forming an open-source, peer-to-peer technology stack. The open set of projects contains products, tooling, and infrastructure to enable local societies and economies to thrive, allow others to build new products and services suited to their specific needs, and help local communities to take back sovereignty and remove the reliance on third parties.
Streamr
Streamr provides decentralized infrastructure for real-time data. Our goal is to enable data to be transported, shared, and monetized securely and scalably without intermediaries. By facilitating new types of data pipelines and ecosystems, we support and accelerate the birth of Web 3.0, in which decentralized applications can securely exchange data and value. The Streamr Network is a middleware solution to be leveraged by any decentralized application, such as Web 3.0 applications or blockchain networks.
Tezos
Tezos is a self-upgradable and energy-efficient Proof of Stake blockchain with a proven record of security and scalability. In 2021, Tezos recorded over 50 million transactions with a carbon footprint of just 17 individuals. Seamlessly adopting innovations without disruption, Tezos is designed to evolve and built to empower. The Tezos Foundation is located in the Crypto Valley.
Velas
Velas is the world’s fastest EVM compatible chain. Velas is a full hybrid EVM/eBPF chain of Solana and Ethereum, that inherited the best from both: security, scalability, high performance, 1.2- sec finality, extremely low fees, and Solidity support.
Waves
Waves creates the economics of free, perfect and instant. The Waves Platform is a global public blockchain platform, founded in 2016. Waves Platform’s mission is to reinvent the DNA of entrepreneurship around the world by providing a shared infrastructure, offering easy-to-use, highly functional tools to make blockchain available to every person or orga-nisation that can benefit from it.
Web 3.0
Our mission is to nurture cutting-edge applications for decentralized web software protocols. Our passion is delivering Web 3.0, a decentralized and fair internet where users control their own data, identity, and destiny. We support Web 3.0 teams and open-source projects through funding, advocacy, research, and collaborations. Our flagship protocols are Polkadot and Kusama.
21Shares AG
Zürich-based 21Shares AG is the world’s premier issuer of crypto exchange-traded products, with over $1 billion in AUM across eleven index, single-asset, and inverse crypto ETPs listed on the Swiss SIX, Deutsche Börse, & Weiner Börse.
Aave
Aave (fun fact: the name is taken from the Finnish word for “ghost”) is a decentralised, open-source, and non-custodial liquidity proto-col on Ethereum. Depositors earn interest by providing liquidity to lending pools, while borrowers can obtain loans by tapping into these pools with variable and stable interest rate options. Aave Protocol is unique in that it tokenizes deposits as aTokens, which accrue interest in real time. It also features access to Flash Loans and Credit Delegation as unco-llateralised loan options.
AlgoTrader
Available on-premise or in the cloud, AlgoTrader is an institutional-grade quantitative trading and trade execution solution for conducting quanti-tative research, trading strategy development, strategy back-testing and automated trading for both traditional finance and crypto finance. AlgoTrader provides everything a buy-side or sell-side firm requires to run its quantitative trading and trade execution operations. It was the very first and most advanced quantitative trading and trade execution software to allow automated trading of Bitcoin and other digital assets. Based in Zurich, New York, and Singapore, AlgoTrader operates globally.
Axedras
Axedras is a DLT / blockchain-based infrastructure and application provider with a vision to connect and digitalize the precious metal industry. We combine bullion market expertise and cutting-edge information technology to create tremendous benefits for the stakeholders of the precious metal industry on a global scale. aXedras has developed a distributed Corda application for product and data integrity within the bullion market: the Bullion Integrity Ledger™.
Bitcoin Suisse
Bitcoin Suisse is the Swiss crypto-finance and technology pioneer and market leader. Bitcoin Suisse has helped to shape the crypto and blockchain ecosystem in Switzerland and has been a driving force in the development of the Crypto Valley. As a regulated Swiss financial intermediary, Bitcoin Suisse offers prime brokerage, trading, custody, lending, staking, and other crypto-financial services for private and institutional clients.
BitMEX
BitMEX is a P2P crypto-products trading platform. It is one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges with a fully verified user base and the creator of the Perpetual Swap. With its upcoming Spot, Brokerage, Custody, Information Products, and Academy businesses, BitMEX is a leading force in the industry with excellent platform performance alongside top-tier liquidity and security.
Bittrex Global
Bittrex Global provides a proven and secure plat-form for its customers to access the opportu-nities of digital asset trading. Built on Bittrex’s cutting-edge technology, Bittrex Global provides an institutional grade experience for professional and novice customers alike.
Crypto Finance
The Crypto Finance Group provides institutional and professional investors products and services with a level of quality, reliability, and security that is unique in the digital asset space today. The group provides asset management, with the first regulated asset manager for crypto asset funds authorised by FINMA; brokerage services for 24/7 crypto asset trading; and crypto asset storage infrastructure and toke-nisation solutions. Since its founding in 2017, the group has been recognised several times, including as a Crypto Valley Top 50 blockchain company, Top 100 Swiss Start-up, and 2019 Swiss FinTech Award winner.
Curve
Curve is an exchange liquidity pool on Ethe-reum (like Uniswap) designed for (1) extre-mely efficient stablecoin trading (2) low risk, supplemental fee income for liquidity providers, without an opportunity cost. Curve allows users to trade between DAI and USDC with a bespoke low slippage, low fee algorithm designed specifically for stablecoins and earn fees.
Enzyme
Enzyme empowers you to build and scale investment strategies of your choice – from discretionary and robo to ETFs and market making. Security is our priority. Our second generation smart contract-enforced platform is thoroughly tested and audited before any mainnet deployments are made.
Fiat24
R Saphirstein AG is a Swiss financial institution directly regulated by FINMA. Fiat24 is a payment application developed by SR Saphirstein AG for its retail customers. Fiat24 attempts to use blockchain technology to change the way existing banks operate and thus increase efficiency.
LCX
LCX, the Liechtenstein Cryptoassets Exchange, is pioneering a blockchain infrastructure bridging the traditional monetary system and the fast-moving trusted technology landscape. The company focuses on tokenization of assets, utility and security token offerings, and advanced trading tools.
METACO
METACO is the leading provider of security-critical infrastructure enabling financial institutions to enter the digital asset ecosystem. The company is trusted by top banks, exchanges and infras-tructure providers globally.
Mt Pelerin
Mt Pelerin is providing products and services bridging the crypto world with traditional finance. It was bootstrapped by its own community through equity crowdfunding that raised more than $2M in 2018. Since then, Mt Pelerin has become one of the leading actors in asset tokenization with its Bridge Protocol platform and provides unique crypto services through its mobile app Bridge Wallet. It is currently working on creating a tokenized full-reserve financial institution in Switzerland.
Nexo
Nexo is the world’s leading regulated finan-cial institution for digital assets with $4 billion in assets under management. The company’s mission is to maximize the value and utility of cryptocurrencies by offering taxefficient Instant Crypto Credit Lines™, a high-yield Earn on Cryp-to & Fiat suite, and sophisticated trading and OTC capabilities, while providing the top-tier custodial insurance and military-grade secu-rity of the Nexo Wallet. Nexo has processed $5+ billion for 1,000,000+ users across more than 200 jurisdictions.
SEBA Bank
SEBA Bank is a pioneer in the financial industry and is the only global smart bank providing a fully universal suite of regulated banking services in the emerging digital economy. In August 2019, SEBA Bank received a Swiss banking and securities dealers license, and in September 2021 the CISA license. The broad, vertically integrated spectrum of services combined with the highest security standards, make SEBA Bank’s value proposition unique.
SwissBorg
SwissBorg is democratizing wealth management by making it fun, fair, and community-centric. SwissBorg holds two licenses to provide Virtual Currency Exchange and Virtual Currency Wallets internationally. We believe that blockchain technology can empower everyone to control their wealth and that this is the next step towards a world of decentralized nations, where every individual is welcome and is fairly rewarded for their contributions.
Sygnum is the world’s first digital asset bank, and a digital asset specialist with global reach. With Sygnum Bank AG’s Swiss banking licence, as well as Sygnum Pte Ltd’s capital markets services (CMS) licence in Singapore, Sygnum empowers institu-tional and private qualified investors, corporates, banks and other financial institutions to invest in the digital asset economy with complete trust.
Taurus is a technology company providing end-to-end digital asset infrastructure for financial insti-tutions. Multi-assets, multi-blockchains. EU market leader with more than 1 bank out of 2 running Taurus infrastructure. We offer a suite of applica-tions to manage the entire lifecycle of any digital assets (private assets, crypto assets and digital currencies) in one platform: issuance, tokenisa-tion, custody and blockchain communication. Easy to deploy or integrate: API-based, availa-ble on premise or SaaS. Future-proof solutions: our engineers are among the few teams in the world that master the full technology stack across software development, secure DevOps, crypto-graphy and blockchain technology.
Utrust
Utrust is the leading cryptocurrency payment solution designed to modernize the finance and payments industry and solve the problems of traditional payment methods by offering instant transactions and immediate crypto-tocash settlements for the merchant.
4ARTechnologies
4ARTechnologies is setting a new digital standard for the art world. The company combines the blockchain with its patented Augmented-Authentication-Technology and offers all art world participants more trans-parency, security and process efficiency. Us-ing a smartphone camera, the microscopic structure of an artwork is captured and con-verted into a digital “fingerprint”. Together with the provenance of an artwork, this fingerprint is secured with the blockchain as a “biometric passport”. Once stored, the artwork is safely and uniquely assigned to its digital certificate.