On April 9, 2024, Hurun Research Institute released the "Global Unicorn Index 2024" in Guangzhou, listing non-listed companies around the world established after 2000 and valued at more than US$1 billion.

The deadline for valuation calculations for this list is January 1, 2024, and major changes in valuations were updated prior to publication. Hurun Research Institute has been tracking and recording unicorn companies since 2017, and this is the sixth time it has released the Global Unicorn List.

The report also includes the 2024 Global Unicorn Investment Institutions Top 100, which lists the world's most successful unicorn investment institutions based on the number of unicorns on this list that they have invested in.

ByteDance remains the world's most valuable unicorn, with a value of 1.56 trillion yuan; SpaceX had the second fastest growth in value, increasing by nearly 310 billion yuan to 1.28 trillion yuan, ranking second; OpenAI had the fastest growth in value, increasing by nearly 570 billion yuan, becoming the world's third largest unicorn with 710 billion yuan.

Other newcomers to the top 10: Sydney-based graphic design platform Canva, which doubled in value to $280 billion, and Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which grew by nearly $100 billion to $240 billion.

Despite paying a huge fine of $4.3 billion to the United States, Binance's value increased by nearly 100 billion yuan to 240 billion yuan, ranking among the top ten. Founder Zhao Changpeng resigned as CEO after admitting that he failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. According to media reports, Binance's revenue in 2022 was 12 billion US dollars.

The main industries for unicorns in the United States are software services, financial technology, artificial intelligence and health technology, in China they are artificial intelligence, semiconductors and new energy, and in the rest of the world they are financial technology and e-commerce.

Fintech, software services and AI unicorns account for one-third of the world's unicorns. AI surpassed e-commerce this year and ranked third. In the past year, the industries most transformed by unicorns were financial services, enterprise management solutions, healthcare and retail.

In the blockchain industry, cryptocurrency exchanges lead in value, with Binance leading with a value of RMB 240 billion, and South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Dunamu increasing in value by RMB 36 billion to RMB 78 billion.

Many companies in the blockchain industry have experienced a decline. As the hype surrounding NFTs has cooled, the value of the US NFT trading platform OpenSea has fallen by more than 80 billion yuan.

Among the top 100 unicorns, there are 10 blockchain companies on the list, namely:

  • No. 9 Binance, worth RMB 240 billion, increased its value by RMB 99.4 billion and is based in Malta;

  • Dunamu, ranked 41st, with RMB 78 billion and an increase of RMB 35.5 billion in value, is located in Seoul, South Korea;

  • Ripple ranked 41st, with a value of RMB 78 billion, a decrease of RMB 28.4 billion, and is located in San Francisco, USA;

  • Alchemy ranked 48th, with a value of RMB 71 billion, and is located in San Francisco, USA;

  • Digital Currency Group ranked 48th, with a value of RMB 71 billion, located in New York, USA;

  • Kucoin, ranked 48th, with a value of RMB 71 billion, is located in Mahé, Seychelles;

  • No. 60 Dfinity, valued at RMB 67.5 billion, is located in Zug, Switzerland;

  • FalconX, ranked 83rd, is worth RMB 57 billion and is located in San Mateo, USA;

  • StarkWare, ranked 83rd, is worth 57 billion RMB and is located in Netanya, Israel;

  • Dapper Labs, ranked 91st, is valued at 54 billion RMB and is located in Vancouver, Canada.

Among these blockchain companies on the list, Binance, Dunamu (operator of South Korean exchange Upbit), Kucoin, and FalconX are trading platforms, Ripple and Alchemy focus on payment channels, Digital Currency Group is an investment institution, Dfinity, StarkWare, and Dapper Labs are blockchain infrastructure developers with their own public chains and products, namely Internet Computer, StarkNet, and Flow.

From the perspective of blockchain projects alone, only five companies, Ripple, Alchemy, Dfinity, StarkWare and Dapper Labs, have been shortlisted. They have also issued their own tokens, namely XRP, ACH, ICP, STRK and FLOW. Currently, XRP has the highest market value of tokens in circulation, followed by ICP, then FLOW, then STRK, and finally ACH.

DFINITY was also on the "2022 Mid-Year Global Unicorn List" and "2023 Global Unicorn List" previously released by Hurun Report. This three-time appearance on the list fully demonstrates that DFINITY's industry status has been steadily recognized by the outside world.

Recently, DFINITY has fully embraced AI and launched the Internet Computer Web3 Accelerator Platform in Hong Kong, which is backed by US$15 million in funding, in an attempt to attract developers to use IC to develop popular applications and accelerate the Mass Adoption of blockchain technology.

We have reason to believe that ICP will only get better and fly higher in the future!

Further reading:

  • Hurun Report's 2022 Mid-Year Global Unicorn List is released, with DFINITY on the list

  • Hurun Report's 2023 Global Unicorn List is released, and DFINITY is on the list again

#Binance #Ripple #DFINITY $ICP

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