According to Chainalysis Crypto Adoption Index, there has been an 881% jump in crypto adoption in the past year. Since 2019 it has jumped 2300%.
The top 5 countries are Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Ukraine, and Kenya, respectively.
The study has ranked 154 countries according to various metrics. It focuses on individual or retail adoption.
Contents
Methodology
It has used factors like Peer-to-Peer Exchange Trading Volume, the On-chain Value Received, and the On-chain Retail Value Received. All these metrics are weighted by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) per capita.
This report has highlighted the importance of both institutional and retail investors. However, more focus has been devoted to retail user adoption.
The study defines retail transactions as any crypto transaction worth under $10,000.
Chainalysis dropped one factor it had used previously, the number of deposits by country weighted by the number of internet users. The firm found that it skewed the rankings toward countries with comparatively more DeFi users.
Instead, it’s creating a DeFi Adoption Index that will be available in the coming weeks.
India’s Performance
India ranks 3rd and 2nd in On-chain Value Received, and On-chain Retail Value Received, respectively. Thus, crypto adoption in India is skyrocketing with both institutional and retail adopters investing significant amounts.
Earlier this month, Times of India (ToI) reported that WazirX witnessed 2648% growth in user sign-ups from tier-2 and tier-3 areas. Tier-1 cities accounted for 2375% growth.
The exchange has a claimed user base of 7.3 million and said it has clocked more than $21.8 billion in trading volumes this year.
The ToI report also reads that WazirX claims the availability of cheap and fast internet coupled with a pandemic-induced lockdown has driven the growth.
But India’s peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange trade volume is comparatively quite low. It ranks 72nd in it. Maybe Indians are a little apprehensive of DeFi.
Global Crypto Adoption Scenario
Below are the top 20 countries by their rank in the Global Crypto Adoption Index.
Emerging markets have outperformed the United States and Western Europe, the traditional hubs of technological innovation.
“In emerging markets, many turn to cryptocurrency to preserve their savings in the face of currency devaluation, send and receive remittances, and carry out business transactions,” reads the report. It added that “adoption in North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Asia over the last year has been powered largely by institutional investment.”
Last year, China ranked 4thon the Global Adoption Index while the U.S. ranked 6th. This year, the U.S. ranks 8th while China ranks 13th. The biggest reason for both countries’ decline is that their rankings in P2P Trade Volume Weighted for Internet-Using Population declined dramatically.
What is driving the Crypto Adoption ?
Around half of the top 20 countries have developing economies. Adoption in emerging markets is powered by P2P platforms.
Several countries in emerging markets, including Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam, and Venezuela rank high on the index in large part because they have huge transaction volumes on P2P platforms.
As mentioned before, many of the emerging markets face currency devaluation. This drives their residents to buy cryptocurrency on P2P platforms in order to preserve their savings.
Central and Southern Asia, Latin America, and Africa send more web traffic to P2P platforms than regions whose countries tend to have larger economies, such as Western Europe and Eastern Asia.
What will drive the next wave of Adoption?
The data shows that growing transaction volume for centralized services and the explosive growth of DeFi are driving cryptocurrency usage in the developed world and in countries that already had substantial adoption, while P2P platforms are driving new adoption in emerging markets.
Peer-to-peer networks are helping in eliminating the middlemen. Many of the developing countries of the world have large unbanked populations. These economies also face inflation risk. Digital assets can open a new avenue for these economies by exposing the users to organized digital financial services.
For instance, in El Salvador, 70% of the adult population does not have a bank account. But, the smartphone penetration is quite high at 146.9 mobile cellular subscriptions per 100 inhabitants. So, the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender can benefit the economy as digital adoption is easier for people. Even Bank of America pointed out many benefits of the adoption in its report.
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