Proof-of-stake coins and exchange tokens have beaten the broader crypto market since 2019, Goldman Sachs finds

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Proof-of-stake coins and exchange tokens have beaten the broader crypto market since 2019, Goldman Sachs finds
The cryptocurrency market has returned around 750% since the end of 2019, Goldman found. S3studio/Getty Images
  • Proof-of-stake tokens and exchange coins have outperformed since 2019, Goldman Sachs found.
  • The bank's analysts monitor crypto segments to determine the most lucrative features.
  • The entire cryptocurrency market has delivered returns of around 750% since 2019, Goldman said.
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Cryptocurrency assets based on "proof-of-stake" networks, and those launched by exchanges, have outperformed the broader crypto market since 2019, Goldman Sachs has found.

Exchange tokens - such as Binance Coin or FTX Token - have outperformed currencies such as bitcoin or decentralized finance tokens such as uniswap over the past year and a half, Goldman's analysts said in a note on Wednesday.

The analysts, Zach Pandl and Isabelle Rosenberg, also found that tokens based on proof-of-stake mechanisms had outperformed proof-of-work coins like bitcoin.

Proof-of-stake is a system of securing a cryptocurrency's network under which users put forward or "stake" some of their coins to gain the right to verify transactions and earn more coins in return.

Proof-of-work - the system that bitcoin and ether currently use - involves users known as miners using huge amounts of computing power to solve complex problems to gain the right to verify transactions and earn coins.

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"As the market matures, monitoring crypto's market segments may help determine which network features investors are rewarding, as well as the prospect for practical applications of the technologies," Pandl and Rosenberg said.

Some of their other key findings included:

  • The cryptocurrency market has delivered returns of around 750% since the end of 2019.
  • Bitcoin has underperformed the broader market, gaining around 500%, while ether has soared 2,000%.
  • Privacy-focused tokens such as monero have underperformed the broad market since 2019.

The analysts didn't go into detail about why certain tokens have outperformed others. But Pandl and Rosenberg said in July that cryptocurrencies can be considered network technologies, and that valuations should be expected to rise with network growth, so long as they're not driven by speculation.

Excitement has been building over proof-of-stake networks, which offer the chance of earning coins without running expensive and energy-consuming mining computers.

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The ethereum network plans to switch to proof-of-stake by early 2022. JPMorgan said the change could help turn staking into a $40 billion industry by 2025.

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