BEIJING, May 21 -- A complete industrial chain for the blockchain sector has emerged in China with hundreds of companies adopting the technology, according to an official white paper released on Sunday.

By the end of March 2018, there were 456 blockchain technology companies in the country, forming a complete industrial chain, including hardware manufacturing, platform services, security services, industrial technology application services, investment and financing, media and human resources services, according to the white paper released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

"The industry is developing rapidly with more and more entrepreneurs and capital entering the market," the white paper noted.

The year 2017 marked the peak of industry development with 178 new companies being established following the rapid popularization and maturation of the technology, it said.

As a result, investors flocked into the market with nearly 100 equity stock investment deals in 2017, the most in recent years. In the first quarter of 2018, the number of equity investment deals reached 68.

The white paper pointed out that the industry is still in a nascent stage. More projects are under way as rapid industrial expansion continues, said Yu Jianing, an author of the white paper.

Yu expects industry development to reach a new peak in 2018.

Blockchain is a digital ledger system that uses sophisticated cryptographic techniques to create a permanent, unchangeable and transparent record of exchanges to trace each transaction.