Top 5 assets held by crypto funds; smart contract platforms dominate the list
Crypto

March 18, 2022
An analysis by research firm Messari analyzed the top assets held by crypto funds at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021:
- Polkadot ($DOT) — a smart contract platform competing against Ethereum.
- Oasis Network ($ROSE) — a smart contract platform focused on privacy.
- Near Protocol ($NEAR) — (another) smart contract platform.
- Terra ($LUNA) — a stablecoin platform.
- Tied for fifth place: dYdX ($DYDX) — a decentralized crypto exchange and Mina ($MINA) — a smart contracts platform.
With 4 of the 6 names being smart contract platforms, what exactly are they and why do crypto funds love them?
- Smart contracts are coded virtual contracts that executes based on predefined conditions — the building blocks behind the blockchain.
- Smart contract platforms a.k.a the operating systems for blockchains, hosts and executes contracts, and allows developers to build applications on top of these blockchains.
These platforms earn transaction fees — the more developers and users on their platform, the more valuable the platform.
Ethereum is the first and largest smart contract platform — generating nearly 7x more transaction fees than the next largest — Binance Smart Chain ($BNB).
- 14x more than Avalanche ($AVAX), 132x more than Solana ($SOL), 268x more than Cardano ($ADA).
- What makes them different: Tech, security, cost, degree of decentralization, speed, ease of use/development, etc.
For many, Ethereum — valued at $337B — has become the benchmark for competing platforms’ growth. But here’s the trillion$ question: Will one, few or many platforms dominate in the future?
If one or a few dominate, many of these 100s of platforms with billion$ valuations going bust is highly possible.
Boomer talk: Remember operating systems Amiga, Inferno or Arthur? Of course not, since Microsoft, Android and Apple killed them and dozens of others.
In history, operating systems tend to consolidate to a few giants — and there are reasons to believe the same will happen for blockchain platforms.