A report by tech researcher CB Insights indicates that Japanese broker and venture capital firm SBI Holdings Inc. tops the list of most active corporate blockchain investors, with investments in eight blockchain companies, including cryptocurrency exchange Kraken and Ripple, Bloomberg reported.
Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Google comes in second, with six investments that span data storage provider Storj, cryptocurrency derivatives-trading platform LedgerX and merchant services with Veem. Overstock.com Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK).
Overstock.com Inc., which last month said it’s opening a cryptocurrency exchange, and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) are the third and fourth most active.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS)is the fifth most active corporate blockchain investor, with involvement in four companies focused on the distributed-ledger technology since 2012..
The data show that the world’s biggest corporations are betting blockchain will start to seep into the fabric of business.
The financial sector has been the most active as the technology especially lends itself to the transfer of money. All 10 of the largest U.S. banks by assets have been involved in the sector, investing $267 million in six blockchain companies and one consortium, the report found.
While banks and corporations are investing in a handful of blockchain companies, venture capital firms have bet on over 100 of them. The top three most active firms ranked by number of portfolio companies are Digital Currency Group, Blockchain Capital and Draper Associates.