On Christmas eve the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, China’s second largest, unveiled the Blockchain 50 Index. Some believe the stock exchange hoped it would become the world’s first blockchain stock market index (as opposed to cryptocurrency index).
All 50 firms are listed below with website and news links.
However, there are numerous caveats. First off, the index attracted a lot of pushback in China including questions about how the companies were selected. Some believe it’s premature for this kind of index. Although blockchain is more mature in China than the West, it is in the early stages globally.
On the flipside, quite a bit of activity is under-represented. As an example of the omissions, the banking and insurance sector are the most active in enterprise blockchain in China, and apart from China’s second largest insurer, Ping An, few financial institutions are represented on the list of 50.
Furthermore, Chinese commentators noted that a large proportion of the 50 companies, as much as 40%, are still at the research stage when it comes to blockchain. Only 10% have mentioned blockchain in their annual reports. For those that earn money from blockchain it only represents a tiny proportion of their revenues.
The other major issue is that some of the biggest technology companies don’t have stock listings in mainland China and hence won’t make the index.
For blockchain hosting, particularly those offering or planning Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) for SMEs, none of the big four have mainland stock listings and hence are excluded. Tencent, is the owner of WeChat Pay and one of the founders of FISCO-BOS, the blockchain technology underpinning the state’s Blockchain Service Network set to launch in April. The tech giant is listed in Hong Kong.
The same goes for Alibaba, which has a dual listing in Hong Kong and the US. It started and owns a third of unlisted Ant Financial, which in turn owns Ant Blockchain and Alipay. The other leading hosting players are Baidu (Hong Kong listing) and Xunlei (Nasdaq listing). Tencent, Ant and Baidu all have a diverse range of blockchain activities.
Other notable exclusions are the two big insurance fintechs. OneConnect, an offshoot of Ping An recently listed on the NYSE and currently has a market capitalization in excess of $5 billion. It might characterize itself as an AI company, but has extensive blockchain activities, especially in trade finance.
Then there’s the online insurer ZhongAn that was founded in 2013 by senior executives from Alibaba, Tencent and Ping An. The Hong Kong-listed company currently has a market capitalization of $46 billion and has a subsidiary, Zhong An Technology, which is a little similar to OneConnect.
The Shenzhen Stock Exchange Blockchain 50 Index
| English name | Chinese name | Sector | Blockchain project |
| Ping An Bank | 平安银行 | Finance | China’s 2nd largest insurer has numerous blockchain activities – news |
| Tunghsu Azure Renewable Energy | 东旭蓝天 | Utilities | renewable energy blockchain trading – news |
| Shijiazhuang Changshan Beiming Technology | 常山北明 | IT | working with Tencent on Zhixin Chain – news |
| Midea Group | 美的集团 | Manufacturing | supply chain management and finance, starting with a billing platform – news |
| Shunliban | 顺利办 | IT | corporate services blockchain for startups such as incorporation – news |
| Visual China Group | 视觉中国 | Media | copyright management – news |
| Kingland Technology | 京蓝科技 | Construction | agricultural production traceability – news |
| Suning.Com | 苏宁易购 | Wholesale & Retail | product traceability, financial blacklist sharing, supply chain finance and trade finance – news |
| YGSOFT Inc | 远光软件 | IT | energy blockchain, supply chain finance, product traceability – news |
| DHC Software | 东华软件 | IT | healthcare, e-governance, blockchain identity – news |
| Hengbao | 恒宝股份 | Manufacturing | holds several payments and digital wallet patents – news |
| Tungkong | 东港股份 | Manufacturing | invoicing, payments and bookkeeping – news |
| Jilin Zixin Pharmaceutical Industrial | 紫鑫药业 | Manufacturing | healthcare, pharma – news |
| Montnets Rongxin Technology Group | 梦网集团 | IT | cloud (internet-based) communication security – news |
| Leo Group | 利欧股份 | IT | advertising blockchain – news |
| GRG Banking Equipment | 广电运通 | Manufacturing | multiple use-cases (supply chain finance, digital asset management etc) – news |
| Shenzhen Hifuture Information Technology | 惠程科技 | Manufacturing | electricity trade system by unit – news |
| Shanghai 2345 Network Holding Group | 二三四五 | IT | |
| Xiamen Anne | 安妮股份 | IT | copyright management – news |
| Westone Information Industry Inc | 卫 士 通 | IT | researching for network security – news |
| MYS Group | 美盈森 | Manufacturing | anti-counterfeiting and agri-product traceability – news |
| S.F. Holding | 顺丰控股 | Transportation | medicines, product traceability and supply chain finance – news |
| Guangdong Advertising Group | 省广集团 | Business Support | advertising blockchain – news |
| Dalian Morningstar Netwrk Technology | 晨鑫科技 | IT | blockchain router (hardware), e-sports, ICO soon maybe – news |
| Whole Easy Internet Technology | 众应互联 | IT | virtual currency mining and developing currency exchanges – news |
| Kingnet Network ( formerly TAIYA SHOES ) | 恺英网络 | IT | shut blockchain division after CEO arrested, had plans for distributed games – news |
| JC Finance & Tax Interconnect Holdings | 金财互联 | IT | blockchain invoices – news |
| HyUnion Holding | 海联金汇 | Manufacturing | blockchain patents and research, unit has supply chain finance blockchain – news |
| Giant Network Group | 巨人网络 | IT | stake in Ant Financial, invested in a JV developing commodity & supply chain finance blockchain – news |
| Jiangsu Akcome Science & Technology | 爱康科技 | Manufacturing | blockchain accounting service platform and blockchain digital asset security and management – news |
| Sinodata | 中科金财 | IT | blockchain as a service, identity management – news |
| Guangdong Homa Appliances | 奥马电器 | Manufacturing | digital currency research, involved in early prototype CBDC for PBoC – news |
| Shenzhen Genvict Technologies | 金溢科技 | Manufacturing | toll collection blockchain – news |
| Hanwei Electronics Group Corp | 汉威科技 | Manufacturing | IoT and blockchain integration – news |
| Hithink Flush Information Network | 同花顺 | IT | Internet Financial Information Services (still in research phase) – news |
| Shenzhen Zhongqingbaowang Interaction Network | 中青宝 | IT | unit set up blockchain rersearch centre – news |
| East Money Information . | 东方财富 | Finance | |
| The Great Wall Of Culture Group Holding Guangdong | 文化长城 | Manufacturing | under investigation for fake blockchain disclosures – news |
| XGD INC (formerly Nexgo Inc) | 新国都 | Manufacturing | research on the combination of blockchain technology and payment fields – news |
| Hand Enterprise Solutions | 汉得信息 | IT | blockchain as a service – news |
| Beijing Thunisoft | 华宇软件 | IT | judicial blockchain with Ant Financial – news |
| Jiangsu Hoperun Software | 润和软件 | IT | blockchain trade finance – news |
| Beijing VRV Software | 北信源 | IT | research; unit has investment in compny developing blockchain certificate platform – news |
| Shenzhen Ysstech Info-Tech | 赢时胜 | IT | research, asset management and custody blockchain with China Everbright – news |
| Beijing Tongtech | 东方通 | IT | pharmaceuticals – news |
| Beijing Sinnet Technology | 光环新网 | IT | blockchain as a service – news |
| GLOBAL INFOTECH . | 高伟达 | IT | supply chain finance – news |
| Shenzhen Forms Syntron Information | 四方精创 | IT | working with IBM for cross border payments – news |
| Beijing Kelan Software System | 科蓝软件 | IT | electronic certification and judicial – news |
| Shenzhen Huada Gene (unit of BGI Group) | 华大基因 | Research & Development | blockchain as a service for genetic data – news |
