India ranks second in the global cryptocurrency adoption index only behind Vietnam, according to the 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index by blockchain data platform Chainalysis.
The worldwide adoption of cryptocurrency has grown by over 2,300 percent since the third quarter of 2019 and over 881 percent in the last year.
“Our research suggests that reasons for this increased adoption differ around the world — 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, while adoption in North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Asia over the last year has been powered largely by institutional investment,” the report said.
The ranking was based on three metrics including peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange trading volume and value received. India was followed by Pakistan and Ukraine at rank three and four respectively. The US and China’s ranking dipped from sixth to eighth and from fourth to thirteenth respectively.
The report attributes this drop in ranking to falling P2P volumes in the two countries compared to worldwide volumes.
Most of the top 20 countries are developing countries like Tanzania, Togo and Kenya. “Many emerging markets face significant currency devaluation, driving residents to buy cryptocurrency on P2P platforms in order to preserve their savings. Others in these areas use cryptocurrency to carry out international transactions, either for individual remittances or for commercial use cases, such as purchasing goods to import and sell,” the report said.
“Many emerging markets represented here limit the amount of the national currency that residents can move out of the country. Cryptocurrency gives those residents a way to circumvent those limits so that they can meet their financial needs,” it added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Technology Express staff and is published from a syndicated fee)
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