At the beginning of the year, exchange between digital assets other than Bitcoin was just 3% of all ShapeShift transactions. Today it is over 50%. This is not about Bitcoin; tokens are an emerging asset class that will flourish with or without BTC.
ShapeShift is a service similar to Blocktrades or Changelly that allows for fast trades between different tokens and cryptocurrencies without the use of an account. Historically most of their volume was between 'altcoins' and Bitcoin; most altcoins and exchanges share similar Bitcoin-centered volumes. The announcement today shows Bitcoin's historical kingdom may be coming to an end.
Today their CEO Erik Voorhees took to twitter to announce what they have seen happen on their exchange:
Six months ago, "Alt to Alt" was ~3% of ShapeShift's transactions. Today, for the first time ever, it's over 50%
This represents a stark contrast to the types of transactions happening last year or even early this year. Cryptocurrency and decentralization are both Bitcoin agnostic; we are headed into a polychain future. It only makes sense that cross-altcoin transactions are coming to dominate the space. ShapeShift and their API driven exchange enables the new Bitcoin features to reach many different areas.
Digital tokens, cryptocurrencies and other tokenized assets are expanding into an ecosystem with the ability to transact in entirely new ways. The asset class is expanding rapidly and it does not care about the success of Bitcoin. Digital assets and decentralized exchanges between them will flourish out of necessity.
Interestingly to note is ShapeShift is still keeping their profits in Bitcoin (primary) and ETH (secondary). A project profiting from the altcoin traffic, apart from their liquidity pools, does not hold altcoins. It will be interesting to see how this changes in the near and long term future.
Get ready for a multi blockchain and multi asset future.
-Kyle