Five facts you shouldn’t miss from Bitcoin’s Q3 2015 report

Last week, CoinDesk released its third quarterly Bitcoin report, which was characterized by a shift in Bitcoin technology toward non-financial applications, such as settlements. Both startups (such as itBit's blockchain products) and large financial institutions investing in blockchain companies are driving this shift.

In this article, I’ve collected some interesting highlights from the report (87 slides in total) that you might have missed.

You can view the full quarterly report here.

1. Trading and volatility are back again

Last quarter, Bitcoin experienced an unusually calm period, with peak-to-trough volatility of just 20% . However, this did not last, and in the third quarter, we saw the price of Bitcoin rise by 13% (Slide 12).

While it is still at the lower end of the range (peak to trough volatility was 84% ​​in Q2 2014), we did see an uptick in volume this quarter (Slide 13).

In the latter part of the second quarter, the monthly transaction volume of the Bitcoin network was between 5 million and 6 million BTC. In August, the transaction volume exceeded 1000万BTC for the first time since April.

2. VC investment has declined

Although traders invested more money in the third quarter, investor interest actually declined.

VC investment in Bitcoin companies fell 41％ from $145 million in Q2 to $85 million in Q3, the lowest level in the past four quarters (Slide 30).

Despite large single rounds from Chain ($30 million) and BitFury ($20 million), the average round size in Q3 was just 600万美元, down from 1000万美元in Q2.

Of course, this may just be a quarterly decline.

So far in 2015, total funding for the industry has reached $ 4.62亿, more than double the amount raised in all of 2014 (Slide 26), while total funding for Bitcoin startups has reached $ 9.21亿, approaching the $1 billion mark (Slide 27).

3. Despite the hype, emerging markets are still short of money

Although emerging markets have been touted as where Bitcoin is most likely to succeed, VCs don’t seem to be buying them.

The Bitcoin Market Potential Index (BMPI), which tracks factors such as technological penetration and financial repression, ranks Argentina, Venezuela and Zimbabwe as the highest-performing markets.

In fact, 40% of the top 10 markets ranked by BMPI are in Sub-Saharan Africa and 20% are in Latin America.

However, the report shows that in Q3 and Q2, no VCs invested in startups in Africa, Latin America, or the Middle East (Slide 32).

Not surprisingly, startups in the U.S. and Canada received the most VC funding, taking 75% of all funding in the third quarter, nearly three times as much as the rest of the world.

Additionally, North America and Europe are the places where Bitcoin is most accepted commercially (Slide 53).

4. Merchant interest wanes again

While transaction volumes and total wallets continue to rise, these figures do not paint the entire picture of the market.

The two largest Bitcoin merchant processors, BitPay and Coinbase, added only half as many new merchants in the third quarter as they did in the second quarter (Slide 48).

BitPay announced that it was laying off employees in an effort to “reduce costs” and “better coordinate the company’s growth within the industry,” and that it would no longer offer free exchange services.

5. New York State Bitlicense causes differences of opinion

In the third quarter, New York State officially closed the application period for Bitcoin companies to apply for Bitlicense.

The regulation, when its concept was first unveiled in 2013, caused great division in the community.

According to statistics, about 22 companies applied for the license, among which Circle obtained the first Bitlicense, and another 15 companies chose to leave New York State.

Many companies leaving the state cited high application costs as the reason for their departure, which Bitstamp estimated at about $100,000. Others said their exit was simply a political statement, strongly opposing “overly intrusive” regulatory guidelines.

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Original article: http://www.coindesk.com/5-facts-from-the-q3-2015-state-of-bitcoin-report/
By Grace Caffyn
Compiled by: Satuoxi
Editor: Satuoxi
Source (translation): Babbitt Information