February 4, 2026
Crypto investing typically begins with Bitcoin, the first public blockchain and by far the largest by market capitalization. After more than 10 years of development on new blockchain use cases, Bitcoin still accounts for about two thirds of investable crypto market capitalization.
But if Bitcoin showed that public blockchain technology can offer innovations in digital money, smart contract platforms demonstrate that blockchains can provide equally profound breakthroughs in digital finance. Introduced with Ethereum in 2015âbut based on concepts from the late 1990sâsmart contract platforms extend Bitcoinâs vision from a network for transactions to a platform for financial applications. We outline this evolution in our latest research report, Investing in Smart Contract Platforms, which you can read here.
Key Takeaway: Smart contract platforms extend the original vision for blockchains from networks for peer-to-peer transactions to infrastructure for financial applications. They offer a new paradigm for global finance based on decentralization and open-source software.
Smart Contract Platforms are the largest crypto segment after Bitcoin
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