The report shows that the number of companies working either with digital coins or the blockchain in “Crypto Valley,” the heartland of cryptocurrency activity near the Swiss municipality of Zug, has almost doubled to 600 in the past year. The figures, contained in an online directory by CV, include companies operating in neighboring Liechtenstein. About 350 entities were featured in the directory when the CV Maps database was first launched in April 2017.

Of the top 50 companies listed, five are unicorns that are either based in Crypto Valley or originated from the area. They include the world’s biggest bitcoin miner, Bitmain, as well as other leading cryptocurrency businesses such as Cardano, Dfinity, Ethereum and Xapo, CV said. Bitmain’s revenue soared 1,700 percent to $2.5 billion in 2017, from just $137 million two years earlier. Its full-year net profit rocketed to $1.2 billion.

More than 440 people, most of them expatriates, work for Zug’s top crypto firms. All of the region’s companies appear to be well-funded, boasting a combined market value of more than $44 billion. Capital levels often run “into the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars” for several companies — a feature that distinguishes them from  startups in other parts of the world, CV said in the report.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: news.bitcoin.com