Goldman Sachs and Citi among most active blockchain technology corporate investors
Blockchain is catching the attention of big business more than ever before with the number of corporate investors hitting a new high.
So far this year, 91 firms have put their cash into the technology which has emerged from bitcoin but has wider applications. And that number is closing in on that of venture capital investment, with 95 active investors.
Financial services firms have been the earliest adopters and Goldman Sachs and Citi are among the top five most active investors in blockchain, research from CB Insights reveals. The two firms are behind only Japan's SBI Holdings, Google and US online retailer Overstock.com.
"Big banks and financial services firms were the first corporate players to make direct blockchain investments en masse – unsurprising, given how Bitcoin’s underlying technology lends itself (both technically and in popular thought) to financial services," said the report.
More than 50 of the world's financial services firms are estimated to have invested in blockchain since 2014. And the 10 largest banks in the US have collectively invested $267m.
So far this year, corporate investment in blockchain totals $327m. Since 2012, that number is $1.2bn.