The paper Chainalysis evaluates crypto adoption across all continents globally and releases annual reports and comes up with a system for ranking the top performing countries in terms of crypto adoption index.
Central & Southern Asia and Oceania (CSAO) between July 2022 and June 2023 commanded 19.3% of all the cryptocurrency received.
Countries in the CSAO currently occupy the top 20 spots in the global crypto adoption index. Here are some of the reasons why this is the case.
High Grassroots Adoption
Grassroots crypto adoption focuses on more than just countries that have the highest raw transaction volumes because it is rather obvious that the wealthiest countries are far ahead on that.
Instead, grassroots adoption highlights the countries whose average everyday citizens are embracing cryptocurrency the most. Therefore, the Global Crypto Adoption Index identifies the countries where a significant number of people are converting the greatest fraction of their wealth into cryptocurrency.
So, CSAO countries such as India, Pakistan and Philippines are in top positions in the global cryptocurrency adoption index because a large percentage of their populations own crypto relative to their wealth levels.
Young, Tech-Savvy Populations
Many of the CSAO countries have a median age under 30. Younger generations are more familiar with technology and are more likely to be early adopters of new financial technologies like crypto.
For example, the total population of Vietnam as of 2023 was 98.8 million and out of this, around 20 million people owned some form of cryptocurrency. Furthermore, as of the year 2022, around 70% of the people owning crypto in the country fall between the ages of 18 and 34.
Methodology
The global cryptocurrency adoption index for the CSAO region combines on-chain data like web traffic patterns to estimate the transaction volumes for different types of cryptocurrencies.
The index is made up of five sub-indexes, each based on countries’ usage of crypto. After ranking all the countries whose data is sufficient on each sub-index, the ranks are weighted by characteristics such as purchasing power and population size.
Next the geometric mean of each individual country’s ranking in all five is obtained, and then the final number is normalized on a scale of 0 to 1. The score here is what determines a country’s overall rank, so the closer the country’s final score is to 1, the higher its rank.
Adoption in Entertainment and Casinos
Integrating crypto in entertainment and casinos has contributed to the region’s cryptocurrency adoption index.
Popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ripple (XRP), and Ethereum (ETH) have earned prominent roles in the entertainment sector due to their growing mainstream use and capabilities.
Cryptocurrency makes it possible to create loyalty rewards programs that incorporate NFTs and tokens, thus offering exciting possibilities for oncoming events and enhancing the overall fan experience.
Cryptocurrency has also seen wide adoption in the online gaming industry, especially online casinos. It ensures fair betting opportunities and offers new models of digital asset ownership and anonymity.
High Engagement
Countries in the CSAO region, such as India, Singapore, Australia, Vietnam, and Thailand, are highly engaged with cryptocurrencies. From July 2021 through June 2022, each of these countries received more than $100 billion.
Large Transactions
The CSAO region has a predominance of large institutions transactions for crypto transfers of more than $10 million. This greatly contributes to the region’s impressive adoption index. It is also important to remember that while small and large transactions are crucial, they have contributed very little.
Innovation in Blockchain Entertainment
Web traffic patterns reveal that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) may just currently be the most significant ramp-off into decentralized finance (DeFi) for CSAO. Play-to-earn (P2E) games and NFTs are closely related.
Data reveals that NFT-related websites make up the biggest share of DeFi-related web traffic in nearly all the CSAO countries that in turn direct their shares into entertainment and blockchain games.
The CSAO region is renowned as a hub for blockchain-based entertainment. After all, game-centric blockchain developers Immutable X and Polygon have their headquarters in Australia and India.
Economic Factors
The countries in the CSAO region have varying levels of economic development. Countries like Vietnam and Pakistan experience currency devaluation and high inflation, which drives the adoption of crypto as a store of value.
For other developing nations in the area, a sizable portion of the population lacks access to traditional finance and is underbanked or unbanked. Cryptocurrencies offer such nations an alternative for payments, remittances, and investment.
Regulatory Environment
Governments in the region, such as India, Vietnam, and the Philippines, have a more favorable regulatory environment for cryptocurrency and a more positive view about crypto, thus encouraging innovation. This has resulted in surging adoption.
