Global crypto adoption among retail investors surge 881%, mostly from Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Ukraine

Global cryptocurrency adoption among ordinary investors surged 881 percent in the past year, with most coming from Vietnam, India, Pakistan, and Ukraine, according to crypto-analysis firm Chainalysis.

Chainalysis, which used factors like peer-to-peer exchange trading volume and value received, aimed to highlight the countries with the most crypto adoption by retail investors.

The firm focused on transactions and individual saving-related use cases rather than trading and speculation.

Using the three main metrics, the firm’s Global Crypto Adoption Index ranked 154 countries with Vietnam, India, Pakistan, and Ukraine topping the list.

Meanwhile, Chainalysis found that adoption in North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Asia last year was largely due to institutional investment.

China and the US dipped in the rankings due to declining peer-to-peer trading volume.

Chainalysis noted that many emerging markets turn to cryptocurrency for preserving their savings amid currency devaluation, sending and receiving remittances, and carrying out business transactions.

Chainalysis removed one factor it had used in its previous analysis, which was the number of deposits by country weighted by the number of internet users.

It found that growing transaction volume for centralized services and the explosive growth of decentralized finance, or DeFi, are driving cryptocurrency usage in the developed world and in countries that already had substantial adoption.

Meanwhile, P2P platforms are driving new adoption in emerging markets.

Chainalysis’ biggest question for the next 12 months is how much adoption will continue on those platform categories compared to new and emerging models.