Blockchain Research Trends

Abstract

This study analyzes 128,286 academic papers tagged as blockchain or cryptocurrency research by OpenAlex's machine-learning concept classifier, published between 2013 and mid-2026. A broader keyword search across paper abstracts identifies 1,938,409 publications that mention Web3-related terms. The analysis measures keyword frequency, temporal trajectories, growth rates, citation distributions, geographic concentration, institutional output, and open access rates. Key findings include 117x growth in annual blockchain publications between 2013 and 2025, the rise of zero-knowledge proofs as the fastest-growing cryptographic primitive (2.1x growth, 2025-2026 vs. 2022-2023), DeFi research experiencing a 74x increase from 2019 to 2025, NFT research peaking in 2023 before declining, China and India leading global output with 13.5% and 13.3% of all papers respectively, and 43.5% of all papers receiving zero citations.