Asia leads the global adoption of cryptocurrencies… and includes 60% of its users

Recent data from Foresight Ventures showed that Asia is at the forefront of global cryptocurrency adoption, accounting for 60% of cryptocurrency users and contributing the largest share of global liquidity.

In a report titled “GTM in Asia” published by Foresight Fingers in collaboration with Primitive Ventures, the influential role of Asia in the global cryptocurrency landscape was highlighted.

Five Asian countries feature in the 2024 Global Cryptocurrency Adoption Index, with India taking first place, followed by Indonesia in third, Vietnam in fifth, Philippines in eighth, and Pakistan in ninth.

Forrest Bay, co-founder of Foresight Fingers, described Asia as an important hub for cryptocurrency innovation, with both users and trading markets.

Centralized exchanges and speculation

Centralized exchanges such as Binance and Upbit dominate crypto activities in Asia, accounting for 37.1% of global traffic to these platforms. Asian users mainly rely on these exchanges as trusted intermediaries, benefiting from their liquidity and verification capabilities.

India: Leading globally in number of Telegram downloads and daily active users, Telegram Mini Bots act as gateways to crypto adoption.

Vietnam: Becomes a hub for GameFi development with projects like Axie Infinity.

South Korea: Highly liquid market driven by speculative retail trading and platforms like Upbit.

Philippines: Pioneer in embracing money-making gaming, benefiting from the remittance culture and gaming ecosystem.

Hong Kong: OTC markets and use of stablecoins are thriving, despite regulatory hurdles.

India and Indonesia are leading the rise

Asia continues to dominate the global cryptocurrency landscape, with nine of the top 20 countries in the 2024 Chainalysis Global Index belonging to the region. India and Indonesia occupied the top spots, highlighting the region’s pivotal role in shaping the cryptocurrency economy.

Singapore and Hong Kong are vying for the title of Asia’s crypto hub, while private wealth in Asia is increasingly shifting towards digital assets, underscoring the growing importance of cryptocurrencies as a favored asset class among the elite.