<p>Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba filed the most blockchain patent applications in 2019, according to research conducted by The Block’s Steven Zheng.<br /> <br /> Tencent and its affiliates <a href="https://www.theblockresearch.com/2019-blockchain-patent-filings-show-chinese-firms-taking-the-lead-61046">filed</a> for 718 blockchain patents out of a total of over 5,800, while Alibaba Group filed 470. Together, they accounted for over 20% of the total.<br /> <br /> <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-61548" src="https://www.tbstat.com/wp/uploads/2020/04/Blockchain-filing-patent-leaders1-1200x550.png" alt="" width="1200" height="550" /><br /> Tencent and Alibaba were followed by WeBank, Ruize Technology, and Ant Financial, in that particular order - and all these three companies are also based in China.<br /> <br /> Overall, about 63% of firms with over 20 blockchain patent filings are based in China. The U.S. follows next. It is worth noting that while 2019 saw over 5,800 patent applications, only 3% of them were granted in the same year.<br /> <br /> To read the <a href="https://www.theblockresearch.com/2019-blockchain-patent-filings-show-chinese-firms-taking-the-lead-61046">full analysis</a> and more such data-driven stories, subscribe to <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis">The Block Research</a>.</p> <hr /> <p><i data-stringify-type="italic">Update: The data used to determine the number of patent applications is based on Google Patent filters deduplicated for “</i><i data-stringify-type="italic"><a class="c-link" href="https://patents.google.com/?q=blockchain&amp;before=filing:20191231&amp;after=filing:20190101" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="slack-kit-tooltip">Family</a></i><i data-stringify-type="italic">” patents</i></p>