Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE), one of China’s two major bourses, has released the country’s first blockchain index (399286) on Tuesday, December 24.

The new index – SZSE Blockchain 50 Index – is intended to reflect the performance of listed companies involved in the blockchain business and comes as part of its efforts to provide more diversified index-based instruments for investors, according to the exchange’s official announcement.

The Blockchain 50 Index samples Shenzhen-listed companies that are associated with the upper, middle and lower streams of the blockchain industry including hardware equipment, technology and service, and other applications.

The top 50 companies that form the sample stock were selected according to the average daily market value during the latest six-month period, including PingAn Bank, S.F.Holding, Visual China Group, Midea Group, etc.

On the first day of the release, the index closed up 1.15 percent to 3,155.03. The average gain of constituent stocks for the year stands high at 50.65 percent, by comparison, the Shanghai-Shenzhen CSI 300 index, which reflects the performance of the top 300 stocks traded in China’s two major bourses, saw an increase of 32.19 percent during the same period.

According to statistics, as of the end of the day (December 24), the market value of all the stocks listed and traded in Shenzhen Stock Exchange was 17.79 trillion yuan, and the total market value of sample shares in the Blockchain 50 stood at over 1.37 trillion yuan, accounting for 7.73%.

It is worth noting that a plurality of stocks in Blockchain 50 saw a great surge in the year. 8 out of the 50 stocks spiked more than 100 percent, and 20 enjoyed over 50 percent increase this year. Shenzhen Genvict Tech Co. rose 309.95%, making the stock the biggest gainer of the year in the Blockchain 50 Index.

The rallies in China’s blockchain-related stocks come on the heels of President Xi’s laud for blockchain technology this October. The rollout of Blockchain 50 index indicates that blockchain is walking into average people’s life and becoming more mainstream in China.

Zhu Youping, deputy director of the management center of China Economic Information Network under the State Information Center, pointed out that the Blockchain 50 Index acts as an indicator. Blockchain empowering the real economy is undoubtedly of great significance for accelerating the digital transformation, realizing the transformation from the growth model of the industrial stage to that of the digital era and opening up new economic growth.

Blockchain has already had the foundation of large-scale application in the regards of technology and regulation. At present, there have been many experimental application cases powered by blockchain in such fields as finance, games, medical care, traceability, copyright, Internet of things, logistics and identity authentication. It is expected that 2020 will be the year when blockchain application will be massively adopted in the country.