The three countries with the highest crypto adoption in the world

Chainalysis has just published its 2023 report on global crypto adoption. In this new ranking where most rich countries are lagging behind, it is countries with low per capita income that find themselves at the top. India, Vietnam and Nigeria occupy the first three positions, ahead of the United States which is nevertheless a giant in terms of cryptocurrency. All details in this item.

In short

• India, Vietnam and Nigeria dominate Chainalysis’s 2023 cryptocurrency adoption rankings, surpassing even the United States.
• Despite an overall downward trend, adoption of cryptocurrencies is on the rise in low-income countries, often due to distrust of authorities and traditional financial systems.
• Although India leads in popular adoption, the lack of regulatory support is holding back mature adoption of cryptocurrencies in the country.

India Leads Global Crypto Adoption Across Almost All Metrics

For several months, crypto adoption has seen a significant decline globally. From a score of 0.9, the index rose to 0.15 in the fourth quarter of 2022, thus reaching its bottom. Even if the last quarter was characterized by a timid recovery with an index of 0.3, the downward trend continues.

However, Chainalysis reveals that crypto adoption has evolved more quickly in countries in Central Asia, South Asia and Oceania despite this bearish context. In its ranking which takes into account 154 countries, 6 countries belonging to this region of the world found themselves in the Top 10.

It is nevertheless necessary to note the particularity of the approach adopted for the Chainalysis 2023 report on global crypto adoption. In fact, the company has chosen to make the classification according to the adoption at the base. In other words, it focused on countries where the grassroots population devotes the largest share of their resources to cryptocurrencies.

Thus, India and Vietnam occupy the first two places in the ranking. In particular, India outperformed all countries on almost all indicators, except for one, peer-to-peer trading volume.

Vietnam and the Philippines stand out with 3rd and 6th place

Among the countries of Central Asia, South Asia and Oceania, Vietnam and the Philippines also stood out in the ranking. They occupy third and sixth place respectively.

For the small clarification, in the 2022 report on crypto adoption in the world, Vietnam was ranked first. The Philippines then came in 2nd place in the ranking. India, for its part, was 4th, just before the USA which moved up one place this year, becoming 4th^e.

2nd, Nigeria holds the torch for crypto adoption in Africa

In Chainalysis’s 2023 rankings, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is in second place ahead of the United States and Ukraine. The country is known for its relatively advanced level of development in the technology sector.

However, in Chainalysis’s 2022 rankings, Nigeria was not even in the top 10. He was 11th. Its move from 11th position to 2nd position this year was certainly helped by innovations in the crypto services sector.

Indeed, since March 2023, Nigerians can buy cryptocurrencies via the bank instantly with their smartphone. Not having to go through a decentralized exchange has certainly boosted grassroots adoption.

That said, it should be noted that since June 9, Nigeria has officially banned Binance from operating on its territory. Yes, you guessed it! Another hit from the SEC!

Let’s hope that Tinubu’s government does not muzzle crypto operators to favor e-Naira, its CBDC which has been struggling to take off since its launch.

India: strong popular adoption, but weak legislative support?

According to April 2023 statistics, India currently has a population of over 1.4286 billion. It’s good to know that this country whose population surpasses those of Europe and the United States combined is leading in popular crypto adoption.

Unfortunately, despite this advantage, the legislation in force in India has long been very unfavorable to the development of cryptocurrencies.

Thus, although popular adoption in India is higher than that seen in other countries, the absence of regulatory support prevents mature and definitive adoption.

We strongly hope that the 5 revolutionary measures for the crypto sector announced by India at the G20 come into force soon. This would be a new dawn for the crypto sector in this country which brings together nearly 50% of crypto users in the world.

Why is there high adoption in low-income countries?

It’s surprising to see low-income countries leading a global crypto adoption ranking and rich countries lagging behind. Several voices were raised after the publication of the report on the issue following this observation.

Bitstamp, the very first crypto exchange in Europe, took a close interest in this and tried to elucidate the causes. His research revealed that people in poor countries generally prefer to turn to cryptocurrencies when they no longer have confidence in their government authorities. They also make this choice when the traditional financial infrastructure in place in the countries does not promote good accessibility to services.

Thus, the role of cryptocurrencies in cross-border fund transfers has made them more attractive in these countries. Added to this is the ability of certain cryptocurrencies to serve as a store of value in a context of inflation and volatility of certain local currencies. However, a nuance must be made.

The ranking produced by Chainalysis takes into account neither the volume of transactions nor the speculative aspect of adoption by country. If these criteria were to be followed, rich countries such as the USA, England, Japan and Canada would undoubtedly be at the top of the ranking.

Chainalysis’s ranking, however, allows us to realize that crypto adoption in rich countries is more centralized at the level of a reduced number of people. There is therefore still work to be done in these countries for a deep penetration of cryptocurrencies into the various social strata.