Q1 2020 in review: Price performance and emerging trends in Smart Contract Platforms and beyond

Smart Contract Platforms and associated sectors were off to a promising start across the board in 2020 before the Coronavirus pandemic derailed most financial markets, including crypto.

These assets exhibit a clear downward trend starting in mid-February, near the time when fears over COVID-19 became more prevalent outside of China. The resulting widespread shutdowns to prevent the spread of the virus froze many economies, leading investors to flee to the safety of the dollar. For crypto, these events culminated in a significant, single-day selloff on Mar. 12, now known as Black Thursday, in which ETH and similar tokens lost almost half of their value.

Despite macro events sending crypto markets into a tailspin and, in some cases, hampering developer productivity, most of the digital assets analyzed above are starting to show slight signs of recovery heading into Q2. A substantial rebound in price would not only offer solace to investors, but projects as well since many platforms rely on their crypto treasuries to fund development. But for the foreseeable future, the crypto markets appear to be in the unstable hands of the broader economic environment.

Smart Contract Platform sector highlights

Our market cap weighted basket of smart contract platforms ended the quarter down only 4%. A more detailed breakdown of this index sheds light on the returns of the selected assets by their respective network design.