Nine cryptocurrency-centered firms has made Forbes Fintech 50 seventh annual list, with top crypto exchange, FTX, and the worlds largest NFT marketplace, Opensea, taking the lead.
FTX and Opensea tops Forbes list
With a whooping valuation of $32 billion, Sam Bankman-Frieds crypto exchange and trading platform FTX, outranked other crypto fintechs to take the lead. The Bahamas based crypto exchange raised a $500 million fund earlier this year which took its valuation to $32 billion.
NFT marketplace, Opensea, valued at $13.3 billion, is seen on the list for the first time and comes second among the nine crypto firms on the list. Opensea continues to dominate the NFT marketplace with over 1.5 million accounts having transacted on the platform.
Other crypto fintechs that makes the Fintech 50 list are; Alchemy valued at $10.2 billion, AVA labs native token Avax market cap stands at $8.5 billion, Chainalysis latest valuation is $8.6 billion, Circle, creator of USDC is currently valued at $9 billion among others.
Despite the bear run and the bloody losses suffered lately following the crash of the Terra ecosystem and huge selloffs in the crypto space, it seems crypto firms are still holding their own and cementing the general strength of crypto in Fintech.
CEX dominance and NFT's increasing popularity
The way to access cryptocurrencies is through crypto exchange, where users can buy, sell or swap. According to CoinmarketCap, Binance is the worlds leading crypto exchange, followed by FTX, with a trading volume of $11.10 billion over the last 24 hours.
Approximately 99% of crypto transactions are facilitated by centralized exchanges, which suggests that they cater for the majority of the trading volume.
Meanwhile NFTs continue to ride the wave and people keep Investing in them, they‘ve become increasingly popular even though they’ve technically been around since 2014, The market for NFTs hit $41 billion in 2021. NFTs exist on a blockchain, which is a distributed public ledger that records transactions.
Despite regulatory fears and concerns, crypto exchanges and the NFT market continue to flourish and new users are recorded daily. For more blockchain news, please download WikiBit - the Global Blockchain Regulatory Inquiry APP.