On October 25, 2020, the 2020 Blockchain Annual Summit & the Second BroadChain Finance “Star Power” Awards Ceremony, hosted by BroadChain, was successfully held at the Broadway Mansion (Shanghai Mansion) in Shanghai. Over 500 blockchain industry leaders and practitioners attended the event in person.
At the opening of the event, Fan Yuanyuan, Co-Founder of BroadChain Finance, delivered a welcome speech on behalf of the organizers and unveiled the "2020 Major Events in the Blockchain Industry". According to the announcement, prior to releasing this list of major industry events, the organizing committee of the 2020 “Star Power” Summit had solicited insights on the development of the blockchain industry in 2020 from founders, executives, business heads, and KOLs across nearly one hundred domestic and international blockchain companies.
BroadChain’s “2020 Major Events in the Blockchain Industry” are as follows:
1) March 12, 2020: The “March 12” extreme market event (an epic crash), triggering liquidity panic across global capital markets. Bitcoin plunged over 50% within two trading days, hitting a low of $3,800.BroadChain Finance Commentary: Markets always bottom out amid panic, advance amid hesitation, and peak amid frenzy.
2) April 20, 2020: Blockchain, as a representative of information infrastructure, was officially included by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in the scope of “New Infrastructure.”BroadChain Finance Commentary: The ultimate significance of all technological transformations lies in “people.”
3) May 11, 2020: Bitcoin underwent its third halving. Market reaction was muted—prices did not rise but instead declined.BroadChain Finance Commentary: Bull markets are born in despair, grow amid doubt, mature amid optimism, and die amid euphoria.
4) June 2020: Compound and Balancer launched yield farming, igniting the DeFi boom and marking the beginning of a new bull market.BroadChain Finance Commentary: All success takes time. We thank Compound founder Robert Leshner and Balancer founder Fernando Martinelli for their bold initiative.
5) August 30, 2020: Decentralized exchange Uniswap’s daily trading volume surpassed that of Coinbase for the first time. On September 16, Uniswap announced the launch of its governance token UNI, propelling DEXs to an unprecedented high point.BroadChain Finance Commentary: Don’t overestimate the power of change in the short term; don’t underestimate the magnitude of trends in the long term.
6) October 8, 2020: China’s Digital Yuan (formerly DCEP) began gradual rollout. Shenzhen distributed digital yuan red packets to local residents.BroadChain Finance Commentary: From DCEP to Digital Yuan, China continues advancing in leveraging emerging technologies effectively.
7) October 15, 2020: Filecoin, a decentralized storage project three years in the making, launched its mainnet—prompting FIL’s sharp price decline and raising skepticism.BroadChain Finance Commentary: Most wealth opportunities aren’t meticulously planned. The “Dove King” project Filecoin may disappoint many.
8) October 21, 2020: Payment giant PayPal announced support for cryptocurrency payments, with plans to extend coverage to 26 million merchants by 2021. Subsequently, Bitcoin surged to $13,200—the highest level of 2020 and approaching its 2019 peak.BroadChain Finance Commentary: The “True Aroma” principle is inescapable—once you begin, it’s never too late.
9) November 2020: Ethereum 2.0 gradually emerged despite repeated delays.BroadChain Finance Commentary: The “Buddha-like” Vitalik Buterin, the new supreme leader of the crypto community’s “God Religion,” remains both courageous and strategic.
Other notable unranked events include: 1) Bitmain’s epic control battle; 2) BitMEX caught in a regulatory storm, with its CTO arrested; 3) Du Jun, co-founder of Huobi, returned to Huobi.
Next, Kelvin Chen of Huobi DeFi Labs delivered a keynote titled “DeFi 2.0: From Niche to Wall Street”, systematically revealing Huobi’s extensive research and practical initiatives in the DeFi space. Kelvin Chen stated, “The Three Pillars of the DeFi World: Stablecoins, AMMs, and Lending.” DeFi will drive a paradigm shift in traditional finance, with stablecoins at its core. DeFi 1.0 achieved growth from zero to $10 billion. To scale further—from $10 billion to $100 billion—we must evolve from DeFi 1.0 to DeFi 2.0. Protocols require upgrades, and risks must be controllable; only then will large institutional capital enter. Ultimately, DeFi can transition from niche capital to mainstream capital, evolving toward the Wall Street world.
Following this, Zhu Fa, Co-Founder of INBTC, presented a keynote titled “Three Historical Phases of Mining”. As a veteran in the crypto industry, Zhu Fa is an accomplished serial entrepreneur who co-founded BTC.com Pool and Bitdeer (formerly “BTC.TOP”) Pool, witnessing the ups and downs of the mining ecosystem and gaining deep insights into crypto mining. Zhu Fa pointed out that Phase One of mining (from Bitcoin’s genesis to 2015) was the era when “Bitcoin equaled mining.” At that time, exchanges’ profits often came from one-time coin purchases, accumulation, or miners’ occasional sell-offs. Phase Two (2016–2018) marked an era where mining and exchanges shared equal prominence: mining leaders still topped the billionaire rankings, yet four out of ten top billionaires were exchange founders. Phase Three (2019–2021) saw exchanges surpass mining in influence. To date, 18.526 million BTC have been mined—over 88% of Bitcoin’s total supply of 21 million—benefiting HODLers and exchanges, but not miners: “Bitcoin has essentially been mined out—you’re no longer needed.” “Energy is finite, but mining hardware can be produced infinitely—that’s the dominant theme going forward.” Zhu Fa concluded.
Next, Ruchu, Chief Strategy Officer for Asia-Pacific at Ethereum Classic (ETC), delivered a keynote titled “ETC and Everyone’s Story in the Community”. Ruchu stated that ETC is “programmable digital gold.” Compared to Ethereum, the ETC community consistently embraces the principle of “seeking common ground while reserving differences.” In terms of commonality, ETC completed three hard forks before June 2020: Atlantis (September 2019), Agharta (January 2020), and Phoenix (June 2020). Regarding differences, ETC Core—the central institution within the broader ETC ecosystem—has delivered numerous development achievements supporting and strengthening ETC.Regarding the widely discussed “51% attacks,” Ruchu remarked: “In my view, this isn’t fundamentally a chain issue—it’s more about economics and hash rate, and most critically, about the miner community. We’re preparing to build dedicated miner infrastructure.”
After the keynote presentations, the Derivatives Roundtable featured BroadChain’s invited guests—including Maggie, VP at BitZ; Jing, Head of Marketing at KuCoin; Willson, Business Director at BiKi; and He Wei, Co-Founder of LBank—leading stars from the exchange sector, jointly reviewing the year 2020 and exploring where derivatives are headed next. This roundtable was moderated by Josephine, Partner at 499Block.
Maggie, VP at BitZ, stated, “Global monetary and fiscal policies injected approximately $20 trillion—roughly 20% of global GDP—fueling rallies across core assets including U.S. equities and crypto assets.” Compared to 2019, overall derivatives trading volume grew significantly in 2020. Specifically, in Q1, perpetual contract volume accounted for ~40% of total derivatives volume; by Q2, that share rose to ~75%.
Jing, Head of Marketing at KuCoin, noted that short-term market sentiment remains subdued, with Bitcoin in a strong wait-and-see stance due to unresolved uncertainties—especially among large-cap holders reluctant to take aggressive positions.“2019 may have been the golden year for derivatives, but 2020 was a year of strategic recalibration and contraction—not signaling diminished future importance, but rather highlighting enormous untapped potential.” Internally, KuCoin expects Q4 to be less active than Q3, but anticipates a stronger market in 2021.
Willson, Business Director at BiKi, observed that post-halving Bitcoin’s price action continues patterns seen after previous halvings, limiting near-term upside—but long-term prospects remain promising.“The rise of DeFi may have weakened Bitcoin’s dominance in derivatives contracts, balancing a market historically dominated by a single asset. Ethereum, DeFi tokens, and other derivative projects have seen substantial growth in contract trading volumes.”
He Wei, Co-Founder of LBank, noted that LBank has relatively limited exposure to the derivatives segment—viewing it as a complementary service line. Futures and derivatives constitute a zero-sum market, though they serve a necessary function. “We constantly advise users to stick to 5x–10x leverage, but users ignore us—they crave high leverage.” Looking ahead, compliance is the prerequisite for derivatives; once compliant, the market opportunity is vast.
DeFi Roundtable, hosted by BroadChain Finance, brought together capital firms, public chains, projects, investment institutions, and incubators focused on DeFi—including Steven, Co-Founder of Chain Hill Capital (Qianfeng Capital); Shang Shu, Business & Technical Director at Conflux; Reed Hong, Technical Contributor at Cocos-BCX; Tang Shi, Co-Founder of BP Accelerator; Liesa, Partner at Jubi Labs; and Guo Tao, China Head of Zenlink—to discuss the “ice and fire” DeFi market of 2020. This roundtable was moderated by Du Chao, Founder of ByteLink.
Steven, Co-Founder of Chain Hill Capital (Qianfeng Capital), noted that most people perceived DeFi’s explosion only in the second half of 2020. Yet, DeFi was already quite mature by late 2019—and clear data trends emerged in early 2020. Two key factors enabled DeFi’s significant growth: the Ethereum ecosystem as fertile ground, and increasingly sophisticated trading users.“The entire DeFi market—including Uniswap—now accounts for 5%–10% of total trading volume across both centralized and decentralized exchanges—a truly staggering figure.”
Shang Shu, Business & Technology Director of Conflux, stated that the DeFi boom in 2020 felt somewhat premature. Even today, the fundamental logic underpinning DeFi remains unresolved, and over-collateralized lending still lacks practical real-world use cases. Listing on UNI should be cheaper than listing on centralized exchanges; UNI’s benefit to the industry may lie in driving down the token-listing fees charged by the top three centralized exchanges—a truly significant achievement.
Reed Hong, Technical Contributor to Cocos-BCX, noted that liquidity mining ignited the industry, with its massive wealth effect triggering widespread follower sentiment—this is the core reason why DeFi has garnered such broad discussion. Looking back now at DeFi, the Ethereum community indeed hosts one of the largest developer communities globally. The entire UNI codebase is truly impressive: fewer than 200 lines of smart contract code suffice to implement its most critical swap logic, and not a single line is superfluous.
Tang Shi, Co-Founder of BP Accelerator, pointed out that decentralized finance (DeFi) represents the earliest blockchain application point perceptible and usable by the general public—one capable of deriving far greater value from the native value of cryptocurrencies. In May, Compound arrived with exceptionally high mining yields. The mainstream crypto community needed a focal point enabling users to participate more actively—and the primary driver behind this DeFi surge was, fundamentally, financial incentives.
Liesa, Partner at Jubi Labs, remarked that whether centralized exchanges or decentralized applications, the crypto industry ultimately revolves around trading. Innovations built around finance—even if initially crude or even deemed “heretical” by traditional finance—are entirely normal and constitute the intrinsic value of the crypto industry. Traditional finance thinking simply does not apply in the crypto space. UNI’s ability to hold its ground in this sector signals foundational recognition and acceptance from its community and investors.
Guo Tao, Head of Zenlink’s China Operations, explained that in 2017, the focus was on public chain concepts. Recently, however, Ethereum’s smart contracts have continuously matured, and new products have launched—these developments collectively fueled DeFi’s current popularity. Centralized exchanges began with spot trading, later expanding into futures and diverse derivatives. DEXs will follow a similar evolutionary path in terms of business models. Thus, the next step is to lay the necessary technical groundwork—only after this foundation is solidly established can traditional internet players, industries, and capital flow into this space. Both robust technology and high-quality underlying assets will inevitably support the entire ecosystem, and we will witness an ever-growing array of “LEGO-like building blocks” completing the industry infrastructure.
Finally, the 2020 “Star Power” Awards Organizing Committee reviewed the blockchain industry’s development in 2020, based on information collected earlier from nearly one hundred domestic and international blockchain companies—including founders, executives, business leads, and KOLs—and established multiple awards honoring companies, projects, and pioneering individuals who delivered substantial impetus to the blockchain industry.
Among them, the 2020 “Star Power” Annual Blockchain Innovation Companies are: Huobi, OKEx, FTX, Uniswap, KuCoin, BiKi, and MXC; 2020 “Star Power” Blockchain Companies (Projects) with the Strongest Technical Capabilities are: Chainlink, ETC (Ethereum Classic), Conflux, Yunxiang Blockchain, Cocos-BCX, OKLink, ChainUP, and HBTC CHAIN; 2020 “Star Power” Blockchain Pioneering Individuals are: Gao Chao of Huobi DeFi Labs, Zhu Fa, Founder of YINBIT, Ruchu, Chief Asia-Pacific Strategist of ETC, Alicia, Senior Partner at KuCoin, “Kao Zai” of Conflux, Wu Fengheng, CEO of Molian Tech, Jiang Xiaoyu, Founder of Hengha Interactive, and Chen Zhu, Founder of “Female Knight Blockchain.” Rankings within each category are unordered.
Additionally, the 2020 “Star Power” Annual Blockchain Columnists are: Lanhu Notes, Aunt Zhang & Aunt Yang, Female Knight Blockchain, Blockchain Big Sister, Block Gold Digger, Where Is Crypto?, Scale Blockchain, and Huobi Research Society—rankings are unordered. Furthermore, TitanSwap, N7 Labs, and Farmland were awarded the 2020 Most Promising DEX Platform, Most Promising Emerging Institution, and Most Promising DeFi Aggregator, respectively.
The founder of BroadChain Broadchain stated: “This marks BroadChain Finance’s second annual flagship event following the successful 2019 Blockchain Fashion Night · Shanghai Cruise Gala & BroadChain Finance ‘Star Power’ Annual Blockchain Awards Ceremony, held aboard a luxury cruise ship on Shanghai’s Bund on October 25, 2019. The 2020 ‘Star Power’ Awards primarily reviewed and summarized annual hot topics including crypto assets (e.g., Bitcoin halving), derivatives (e.g., perpetual swaps, futures, options), and DeFi (e.g., DEXs and liquidity mining).”
“BroadChain Broadchain, as a seasoned blockchain financial media outlet that has weathered multiple bull and bear markets, organizes the ‘Star Power’ Annual Awards to review and summarize the blockchain industry’s developments over the past year—and to witness and advance industry progress through the lens of media.” he added.