Crypto Adoption Rates Spike in India and Vietnam

According to a Chainalysis report, crypto adoption from individual investors sees the fastest growth in India and Vietnam. 

Over the last year, crypto adoption has surged in communities around the world. The rise of highly accessible digital trends such as non-fungible tokens (NFT), escorted a new wave of investors into the space. 

Chainalysis used information from peer-to-peer exchange trading volume and received value to find that cryptocurrency adoption spiked by over 881% in the last year. The data analysis company noted that both professional and institutional investors are critical to the market, however, the greatest adoption of crypto comes from individual retail investors. 

These investors are interested in use cases that involve transactions and savings, rather than trading and speculation. According to its findings, India and Vietnam top the list of cryptocurrency adoption from individuals. Both Pakistan and Ukraine also saw a high growth of crypto adoption from individual investors. 

The report hints at currency devolution as one of the reasons these particular countries could be ranking at the top for individual investor crypto adoption. Chainalysis uses its Global Crypto Adoption Index, which ranks 154 countries by three metrics. Both China and the U.S., according to the index, moved down places due to the decrease in peer-to-peer trading volume.

The report states, “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.” On the other hand, “adoption in North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Asia over the last year has been powered largely by institutional investment.” 

Overall this year is a prosperous, as two of the biggest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and Ethereum, saw their worth multiply many times over. 

Crypto adoption in India 

India is a country with a back-and-forth relationship with crypto. 

Initially, the country banned cryptocurrencies back in 2018, though the supreme court struck that down in 2020. Over the past year, the bill came under review again. And a month later, the Indian government said that it’s considering an additional 18% tax on foreign crypto exchanges. 

Nonetheless, the country sees a lot of activity from both individual investors and large crypto firms. Last month, Coinbase pushed forward its new tech hub in India and just last week, the country gained its first crypto unicorn. The Indian exchange CoinDCX raised a steep $90 million which led to a valuation of over one billion dollars.