A traveler makes payment using Alipay at the counter of a Shangri-La hotel in Singapore. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Alibaba leads the global blockchain patent application list, with 1,457 applications in the first half of 2020, Sina reported on Wednesday.

Tencent grabbed second place with 872 applications, followed by China's largest server maker Inspur Group with 274, according to a report co-released by IPRDaily and the incoPat Invention Index Research Center.

The United States' IBM, with 251 applications, only got fourth place on the list, where seven of the top 10 companies came from China.

Statistics show the number of blockchain patent applications by Alibaba in the first half of 2020 is close to the number for the entirety of 2019, which stood at 1,505.

As of May 14, Alipay obtained 212 authorized blockchain patents worldwide, with 126 of them from countries and regions outside China and the percentage of overseas authorizations exceeding 59 percent, according to Alipay.

Among the top 100 companies on the list, Chinese companies accounted for the largest proportion at 46 percent, followed by US companies with 25 percent, the report said.