The number of companies in Crypto Valley working with blockchain technology is growing rapidly.

As of September 30, 2018, a total of over 600 blockchain related companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein were registered on CV Maps. The number is nearly double that recorded in the spring of this year.

CV VC, a blockchain-focused investor and incubator in Zug, has worked with PwC Strategy& Switzerland and the information management firm inacta to identify the top 50 Crypto Valley companies based on CV Maps data.

Strong capital base

Companies qualifying for this crypto super-league must meet three criteria:  Firstly, blockchain technology has to be part of the company’s core business, secondly, it must employ more than one person in Switzerland or Liechtenstein, and lastly, it should make some contribution to the blockchain ecosystem and the wider Crypto Valley community.

There are three additional criteria, at least one of which must be fulfilled: Funding in excess of US$10 million, a valuation of more than U$10 million or the provision of at least 10 full-time positions in Switzerland or Liechtenstein.

CV VC’s report sheds light on the various sub-sectors of the industry, their market capitalization and their headcount. Some highlights at a glance:

• At the end of September 2018, CV Maps directory contained over 600 companies working with blockchain technology (directly, or as a service provider, such as specialized consultancies, law firms, blockchain organizations and academic institutions).
• According to the database, Blockchain companies employ around 3000 people in Switzerland. The Top 50 alone counts 443 employees. Most companies employ many more people abroad.
• The Top 50 companies together have a market capitalization of around US$ 44 billion, however the consolidated value of the sector overall can only be estimated, as many companies do not publish exact data.
• The Top 50 companies have a very strong capital base, especially compared to other startups. Many of them have funding in the tens or hundreds of millions.
• Five Blockchain Unicorns are either based in or have originated from the Crypto Valley: Bitmain, Cardano, Dfinity, Ethereum and Xapo.

Crypto Valley contains a large subset of the blockchain industry, from health tech to data analytics to e-government. Two secondary areas feature in the top 50 list: the first is broker, trade & exchange and the second is platform & protocol. Each is represented by 11 companies. Other sub-sectors that include many companies are hardware & middleware as well as community, P2P & loyalty.

In addition to CV Maps’ own databases, data used to compile the Top 50 was drawn from information provided by the companies themselves, from crypto exchanges, media reports and social media such as LinkedIn. Where no information was available, estimates were made and declared as such in the CV VC Report. Estimates of worth were rounded into four categories: $10 million, $25 million, $100 million and $1000 million ($1 billion).

Partnership with PwC

CV VC’s collaboration with PwC in developing the Top 50 report is part of a long-standing strategic partnership between the consulting firm and CV Labs, the CV VC’s co-working space in the center of Zug.

Daniel Diemers, PwC Strategy& EMEA Blockchain Leader, said:

Daniel Diemers

“Crypto Valley has grown enormously in just three short years. Even two or three years ago, there were just 10 to 15 companies in the blockchain industry. PwC was quick to realize the potential of Blockchain and how it is important for companies to understand the technology and to get close to innovative startups in the field“.

 Top Crypto Valley 50 Companies

Company Name	Description
PikcioChain	PikcioChain enables the collection, certification and exchange of personal data. It protects the individual‘s data while making data acquisition and management easy for businesses. PikcioChain is providing the world’s first monetized personal data marketplace, and is revolutionary in its concept and idea.
Vetri	VETRI is the next iteration of the Procivis digital identity platform, which draws on the e-government platform eID+, also developed by Procivis. While the idea of anonymously matching the owners and buyers of high-quality data is not new, what is new is that VETRI delivers a solution that does not require a central business intermediary that needs to be paid for matching two parties: VETRI is a not-for-profit, open-source platform.
MedicalChain	Medicalchain uses blockchain technology to securely store health records and maintain a single version of the truth. The different organisations such as doctors, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacists and health insurers can request permission to access a patient’s record to serve their purpose and record transactions on the distributed ledger.
Etherisc	Etherisc‘s mission is to build decentralized insurance applications, making the purchase and sale of insurance more efficient, enabling lower operational costs, increase transparency of insurance compared to traditional operations, and democratize access to reinsurance investments.
Decent	DECENT is a Blockchain Content Distribution Platform that is Open-Source and utilizes Blockchain to ensure trust and security. Our intention is to revolutionize data distribution on the Internet.
SingularDTV	SingularDTV is a blockchain entertainment studio laying the foundation for a decentralized entertainment industry. Building the future of rights management, project funding, and peer-to-peer distribution, SingularDTV’s platform empowers artists and creators with powerful tools to manage projects from development to distribution.
Ambrosus	Combining high-tech sensors, blockchain protocol and smart contracts, we are building a universally verifiable, community-driven ecosystem to assure the quality, safety and origins of products. At the Ambrosus project we aim to radically improve the global supply chains by creating a trusted ecosystem where we can reliably record the entire history of products and execute commercial transactions accordingly. We seek to enable a more secure and autonomous supply chain, improve distribution processes and allow consumers to easily see where their products come from and what is really in them.
Modum	Modum.io sensor devices record environmental conditions while physical products are in transit. When a change in ownership occurs, the collected data is checked against a specific smart contract in the blockchain. This contract validates that the transaction meets all of the standards set out by the sender, their clients, or the regulator and triggers various actions: notifications to sender and receiver, release of goods, payment, etc
Smart Containers	Smart Containers develops, builds and rents out airfreight containers for medicine & food transports. We combine cutting-edge technology and IoT sensors in a logistics ecosystem on blockchain.
ORS	ORS optimization software makes use of artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analytics to deliver immediate savings increased revenue and customer experience
friendz	Friendz is a fast-growing company whose main goal is to connect brands with their target audience, taking advantage of the most powerful marketing tool ever: the word of mouth on social media. Friendz is proud to have introduced in the digital marketing scenario a new way of doing advertising, based on peer-to-peer communication
Grain	Transparent contracts. Drastically reduced overhead costs. And instant payments. Facilitated by Grain’s blockchain solution.
Matchpool	Join and create communities you love. Search by interest for like-minded communities. Join pools by engage and privately chat with pool members ad create pools to start a community based around a specific interest.
Datum	Datum is a decentralized and distributed high performance NoSQL database backed by a blockchain ledger. This technology allows anyone to securely and anonymously backup structured data from social networks, wearables, smart homes, and other IoT devices. Datum provides a marketplace where users can share or sell data on their own terms.
Streamr	Streamr provides a complete system to create unstoppable real-time data apps, even without writing code. Currently, the valuable data you produce is at the mercy of large corporations. In the Streamr network, it’s yours to use and sell as you wish, and travels through a decentralised peer-to-peer network controlled by no one and incentivized by the DATAcoin token.
Deon Digital	Deon Digital has developed a programming language and operating system to create and manage truly digital contracts, which you can use to build digitized enterprise processes and future business ecosystems. We aim to “tear down walls” not only within, but also between organizations: letting information, ideas and transactions flow freely — and exactly where, when and how they should.
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.
Proxeus	They are blockchain entrepreneurs with over a decade experience in building successful digital businesses. They have developed their own technology allowing them to industrialize the creation of blockchain applications, powered by XES, their own cryptocurrency
Shift Cryptosecurity	Digital Bitbox is a minimalist bitcoin hardware wallet packed with security and privacy. Safely hold and spend your coins with peace of mind.
Sirin Labs	The current generation of smart devices compromises on user security. The focus is overwhelmingly on user experience, at a huge cost in fraud and cybercrime. They believe the digital economy of the future cannot tolerate this trade-off: device architecture demands a paradigm shift that enables true security, while maintaining excellent user experience. FINNEY devices are the first cyber-protected, blockchain-enabled mobile phone and PC. They enjoy the functionality of Android OS, plus a suite of cyber security technologies, giving users safe, reliable access to the blockchain.
Bitmain	Bitmain is a blockchain and semiconductor company, dedicated to the design and manufacture of high performance computing chips and software. They serve their customers globally with industry-defining technology – blockchain securitization, AI machine learning and more. Bitmain’s Fintech hub including a decentralized exchange is located in Switzerland.
Aeternity	æternity is a new blockchain technology, designed to deliver unmatched efficiency, transparent governance and global scalability. æternity is a scalable blockchain platform that enables high bandwidth transacting, purely-functional smart contracts, and decentralized oracles.
Aragon	Create value without borders or intermediaries. They are building Aragon because they believe decentralized organizations can solve the world’s worst problems. Aragon is a project that aims to disintermediate the creation and maintenance of organizational structures by using blockchain technology. They want to empower people across the world to easily and securely manage their organizations
Bancor	Bancor allows you to convert between any two tokens on their network, with no counterparty, at an automatically calculated price. Thanks to built-in liquidity, the future of user-generated tokens is here.
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.
Dfinity Network	Dfinity is a blockchain based world computer network that is powerful enough to host business applications at scale. The network features a variety of innovations in the blockchain space. The Dfinity network is self-governing through the use of an adaptive network called the Blockchain Nervous System (BNS). The network is also capable of achieving transaction finality at an average speed of 7.5 seconds due to advancements in random number generation and selection. The Dfinity protocol uses Verifiable Random Functions (VRFs), BLS Cryptography and the Threshold Relay technique (powered by a random beacon) to achieve these speeds.
Ethereum	Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, 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 instructions 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
Feathercoin	Feathercoin is an upgraded and customised version of Bitcoin. Feathercoin was born with the intent to expand, experiment, and build onto the blockchain technology in a manner open to all for participation. Feathercoin is a powerful open source digital currency with monetary properties likened to Bitcoin, Litecoin and a myriad of countless alt coins, but under the hood is something very different.
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 decentralized 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
Status	Status is an interface to access Ethereum, built for Android and iOS. Enjoy encrypted messaging, a cryptocurrency wallet, and seamless access to DApps.
Tezos	Tezos is a new decentralized blockchain that governs itself by establishing a true digital commonwealth. It facilitates formal verification, a technique which mathematically proves the correctness of the code governing transactions and boosts the security of the most sensitive or financially weighted smart contracts.
Waves	They create 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-touse, highly functional tools to make blockchain available to every person or organisation that can benefit from it.
Maecenas	The platform will be launched in 2018 and will be the first open blockchain platform that democratises access to Fine Art. A new online marketplace promises to give art lovers the chance to buy share in famous paintings. Keeping art safe but not hidden.
Melonport	Melonport is the private company building the open-source Melon Protocol. The Melon protocol is a blockchain protocol for digital asset management built on the Ethereum platform. It enables participants to set up, manage and invest in digital asset management strategies in an open, competitive and decentralised manner. Read the Melon Protocol Green Paper for a full detailed description of how it will empower its users and evolve digital asset management.
Tend	TEND is a blockchain company that creates a new investment world driven by passion, purpose and meaning. It‘s for all forward-thinking, like-minded people who desire to invest their money more purposefully
Bitcoin Suisse	They have a long-term and ambitious vision for Bitcoin Suisse AG. To realize these goals they are building a team of highly talented people who share their vision and who are passionate about creating world-changing financial products and services.
Bity	The Swiss gateway to convert money into cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Buy - sell bitcoins and ethers. Introducing Bity Kiosks, the easiest way to acquire or sell bitcoins with cash. Only a phone number is required. Bitcoin ATMs are currently located in Geneva, Lausanne, Montreux, Neuchâtel, Zürich Hauptbahnhof and Zürich Hardbrücke.
Coreledger	The CoreLedger infrastructure creates a simple and secure platform from which to use blockchain technology. It allows users to digitize goods and services without programming effort. Thanks to blockchain technology, these assets can be securely and irrevocably transferred with immutable and unfalsifiable proof of ownership. Transactions using digitized assets decrease costs and integrate seamlessly with existing goods and services
Crypto Finance	Crypto Finance AG is a financial technology company founded in June 2017. The company provides blockchain-related services through its three divisions Asset Management, Brokerage and Storage. The aim of Crypto Finance AG is to facilitate the implementation of blockchain technology in the global economy through a range of high quality financial services.
Lykke	Lykke takes advantage of breakthroughs in crypto-technology to build a global Internet exchange with immediate settlement for all asset classes and types of financial instruments. The banking architecture is outdated and needs to be replaced. They propose an Internet exchange that uses blockchain to trade all types of financial instruments. The benefits are immediate settlement, low transaction fees, the absence of a single point of failure, and strategic independence. Immediate settlement and highly competitive pricing will lead to rapid volume growth and establish the exchange as the Internet marketplace.
SEBA Crypto	SEBA’s ambition is to become the world‘s first universal, fully licensed and supervised crypto bank, offering industry leading crypto-asset financial products and services. SEBA’s team is comprised of global leaders and experts in banking, financial markets, FinTech and Blockchain.
ShapeShift	ShapeShift is a crucial piece of infrastructure in the world of Bitcoin. From start to finish, users can exchange blockchain tokens in seconds, with no account required. No emails or passwords. No lengthy signup process. No accounts. No bid and ask orders. No friction. ShapeShift’s goal is the fastest, safest, and most convenient way to swap digital assets.
Smart Valor	Smart Valor is building the blockchain-based Valor-Network: a decentralized community-based marketplace for tokenized alternative investments. It enables asset issuers to create and distribute tokenized alternative investment solutions.
Token Suisse	As leading European provider for Crypto Asset Investment Solutions, TokenSuisse is at the forefront of financial innovation. Whether Coin Brokerage, Crypto Asset Advisory or Analytics and Consulting Solutions, their inhouse capabilities allow them to help with any question regarding Blockchain Technologies and Crypto Assets. Most importantly, through differentiation between and critical analysis of emerging blockchain technologies, their team is able to derive the implications for different Crypto Assets and as well as affected companies
AAVE	Aave (former ETHLend, a decentralized digital asset- backed lending platform), a new technology company focused on empowering people through innovation. Their technology-based venture intends to fill the gaps left by centralized fintech industry players such as PayPal, Skrill and Coinbase, by introducing new products and services, such as Aave Pocket, Aave Lending (SaaS), Aave Gaming, Aave Custody and Aave Clearing. ETHLend becoming a subsidiary under Aave (Note: Category based on ETHLand)
Lapo	LAPO Blockchain is building a revolutionary financial ecosystem empowering businesses, traders and consumers with a fast and easy payment solution integrated with a secure decentralized exchange powered by artificial intelligence. Thanks to this innovative technology it will be possible to reduce transaction fees and complexity for business and increase access and usability for people. LAPO Coin is the core of the LAPO ecosystem, called the LAPO ePlatform.
MCO	MCO is a pioneering payments and cryptocurrency platform (MCO Visa card and mobile app). Their guiding principles are: Clarity and Simplicity; No fine print; Lead, don‘t follow. They strive to make their products simple to understand and easy to use. They take extra care to think and communicate with absolute clarity.
Utrust	As a buyer, minimizes the risk of scams and fraud by providing a full payment protection and acting as a 3rd party mediator. We protect your purchase from the moment you pay until delivery! As a seller, you benefit from low fees and real time transactions. Say goodbye to nasty chargebacks, credit card fraud and hacked account payments. With UTRUST you can accept multiple cryptocurrencies at once and all payments received will be converted to fiat currency to protect you from market price fluctuations.
Eidoo	Eidoo, a Ticino based blockchain startup, has officially launched the ICO Engine to allow Crypto companies and startups host and manage their token sales safely and with ease via the Eidoo mobile app.
Xapo	Xapo has been described by The Wall Street Journal as the Fort Knox of bitcoin storage. So if you’re looking to secure your bitcoins, then look no further than the Xapo Vault. They have developed a new standard of bitcoin security and protect your assets in the Vault so that you are rest assured that your money is safe and sound.