On Tuesday, China Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SSE) announced that it plans to list 50 companies in China "whose business areas involve the upstream, middle and downstream of the blockchain industry."
According to the Chinese media, these top 50 blockchain-related stocks are ranked based on their average daily market value over the past six months. The index is updated two times per year: on the second Friday of June and December.
Before developing the index, the SSE reportedly performed an investigation that determined whether the firms being listed were actually using DLT or blockchain, instead of just trying to take advantage of the excessive hype surrounding the technology.
SSE is one of two stock exchanges operating independently in mainland China. According to stock market data, the SSE's market capitalization is $3.12 trillion, making it the fourth largest in Asia and the eighth largest in the world.
On the same day, the Central Bank of China also announced its recent bond issuance using blockchain. It sold about 20 billion Chinese yuan ($2.8 billion) to help finance micro-entrepreneurs in the country.
Some analysts began emphasizing on Chinese President Xi Jingping's constructive statements on the blockchain technology in the recent past, divulged the Chinese government is expecting a wave of new investment into Chinese blockchain companies.
In October, Xi gave a speech saying China needs to "seize the opportunities" presented by blockchain, in what appeared to be one of the first instances of a major world leader backing the tech. Xi said blockchain is an "important breakthrough in independent innovation of core technologies."
Xi called for China to boost its adoption of blockchain, and to increase its use within China's government, industry, and technology sectors. Consequently, the statement seemed to have stimulated the constructive speculation amongst crypto market participants.
In September, Nasdaq Composite Index
