Crypto adoption index 2022 - Chainanalysis

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Crypto adoption index 2022 - Chainanalysis


You can click on the above link to see the summary of the report. On the world map included, you can see the extent of the crypto adoption per each country. You can click on any country on the map to see the countries index score and rank.

What is grassroots adoption of cryptocurrency?
Think of it this way: We could easily rank countries by raw cryptocurrency transaction volume, which would give you a straightforward view of where the most cryptocurrency activity is happening. But that’s not what we’re interested in. The goal of our index is to measure where the most people are putting the biggest share of their money into cryptocurrency. While institutional activity is important to that, we also want to highlight the countries where individual, non-professional investors are embracing digital assets the most. You can read our methodology below to learn how we do that, then keep scrolling to see the top 20 of our index. You can also see where any country ranks using the interactive map above.

Methodology used is based on five sub-indexes, 146 countries were ranked between scale of 0 to 1, the ranking from 0 which is the lowest score, to 1 which is the highest score. For the sub-index calculation, countries transaction volume for different services and protocols based on web traffic are estimated.

In order to calculate our sub-indexes, we estimate countries’ cryptocurrency transaction volumes for different services and protocols based on the web traffic patterns of those services’ and protocols’ websites. Relying on web traffic data means that usage of VPNs and other products that mask online activity, but given that our index takes into account hundreds of millions of transactions, VPN usage would need to be extremely widespread to meaningfully skew our data. Experts we interviewed for the report generally agreed that our index matches their perceptions of the markets they operate in, giving us more confidence in the methodology.

The five sub-index used
On-chain cryptocurrency value received at centralized exchanges, weighted by purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita
On-chain retail value received at centralized exchanges, weighted by PPP per capita
Peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange trade volume, weighted by PPP per capita and number of internet users
On-chain cryptocurrency value received from DeFi protocols, weighted by PPP per capita
On-chain retail value received from DeFi protocols, weighted by PPP per capita

One if the key takeaways from the 2022 Crypto Adoption Index is that the overall adoption slows worldwide in bear market, but it remains above pre-bull market levels. But this is how crypto market has been, there are both bull and bear periods, the bear would follow the bull but as the adoption slows down in bear time, it is still above the bull time. This has led to the over increase in crypto adoption since bitcoin was created.


You can read the summary in details:
https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/2022-global-crypto-adoption-index/

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[jackg]

The US, Canada, India and China both look very big to include in one index like this (it'd be interesting if they split them up into four quadrants or something - or by cities in the case of china).

I imagined adoption by cities in Canada to be similar to that of cities in the US, just there's a lot of extra space and extra population elsewhere where crypto might be less heard of.

Emerging markets look like they're adopting it faster but maybe its an existential thing for them to be able to continue competing with other markets by ensuring they take on new technologies and can adapt to them quite quickly and to preserve their wealth if crypto gets bigger (or if it has since they adopted it).

[Upgrade00]

China are the most unlikely entry for me on the list; with Nigeria, I'm aware that the ban only restricts banks from mediating between crypto transactions, but China have a full on crypto ban, which even affects mining activities in the country, but are ranked #10. Any history on where China was ranked a couple of years ago, before the effect of bans started kicking in?

Vietnam is also a country that comes up very little in crypto discussions, little surprise they are topping the list.

[Darker45]

It would be a different ranking though if we understand crypto adoption not simply as transactions but as running Bitcoin node or passing Bitcoin or crypto-friendly laws or implementation of Bitcoin-supporting policies and legislations. Bitcoin adoption thrives more in a friendly environment. So tax breaks on Bitcoin, for example, is a strong drive for adoption. Such supportive policies boost the people's confidence. People wouldn't be worrying that the authorities would come in all of a sudden because of their involvement with Bitcoin.

[Lucius]

Let no one be offended, but to me it seems like a bunch of random nonsense, especially if China is in the top 10, and also Thailand, which banned cryptocurrencies as a means of payment about half a year ago, as well as Turkey, which is on 12 place. What kind of adaptation are they talking about then?

I can't boast that I live in a country of prosperity or that corruption is not at the level of the worst countries in the world, but when it comes to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, I generally have conditions that are hard to find anywhere in the world - and on this list my country is ranked above 100+. If those doing research went to the field and did real research, then they would get realistic results - theory is one thing, but the actual situation is something completely different.

[Solosanz]

Let no one be offended, but to me it seems like a bunch of random nonsense, especially if China is in the top 10, and also Thailand, which banned cryptocurrencies as a means of payment about half a year ago, as well as Turkey, which is on 12 place. What kind of adaptation are they talking about then?

Another thing is Nigeria isn't at least top 3 on P2P trading volume because I've read many articles Nigeria already ban Bitcoin usage, but the citizens transact Bitcoin by P2P. AFAIK India also a fan of banning Bitcoin, how can it's become the top 1 on the 3 category? Also how can El Salvador isn't on the top 1 on retail centralized service because all businesses are getting forced to enable Bitcoin payment.

This is chainalysis which is considered as the best blockchain analysis, how they can collect poor data like this one lol.

[Tytanowy Janusz]

the most unlikely entry for me on the list; with Nigeria,

Nigeria is very active in crypto. I'm moving around crypto related stuff a lot and many people I get in touch are from Nigeria. They might have crypto ban, but they do their best to participate. Just like Solosanz said. They are in top in term of P2P trades.

If this rank was about how legal crypto is so shouldn't El Salvador be top1 as first country that made bitcoin legal tender and used bitcoin as reserve asset. Its not even in top 20.

My biggest surprise is Vietnam. Looks like this rank is "bunch of random nonsens' just like Lucius said.

[Rikafip]

I can't boast that I live in a country of prosperity or that corruption is not at the level of the worst countries in the world, but when it comes to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, I generally have conditions that are hard to find anywhere in the world - and on this list my country is ranked above 100+. If those doing research went to the field and did real research, then they would get realistic results - theory is one thing, but the actual situation is something completely different.

Yep, just another "crypto adoption list" that doesn't make much sense to me.

As you pointed out, our country has pretty good crypto laws and is one of the rare countries where you can go to a physical crypto exchange and buy/sell crypto without doing any KYC (up to a certain amount) + that you can also buy and sell crypto in our post offices, yet we are far behind countries that have completely opposite laws and where is much harder to do any crypto related thing. Same goes for our neighbor Slovenia that is ranked even lower while its probably ahead of us when it comes to crypto adoption and should have been much higher.

[Gyfts]

Some of the larger markets, U.S. and China, matter a lot for Bitcoin's price but I see their government's as being extremely anti-crypto. China is in a league of it's own, but with this methodology you have the U.K. ranked below China in crypto adoption. Doesn't make any sense, even with the U.K.'s regulation on the crypto space.

China's economy is fragile and their government has expressed anti-Bitcoin rhetoric in the past. Their enforcement and penalty for using crypto isn't stringent. If they wanted it to be, they could flip the switch on a whim. China shouldn't be on this list.

Methodology used is based on five sub-indexes, 146 countries were ranked between scale of 0 to 1, the ranking from 0 which is the lowest score, to 1 which is the highest score. For the sub-index calculation, countries transaction volume for different services and protocols based on web traffic are estimated.

Precisely the problem. Transaction volumes only give the partial story. Adoption is government dependent. Some number of whales could inflate the transaction volumes.

[el kaka22]

It is very weird that African nations have not adopted it even more, some nations did, most noticeably I know that Nigeria for example had a whole talk in the politics about it, but there are some places where it is still not adopted a lot.

Poor nations could benefit from this even more, they could spend their hours to get some money, I have faced with people from all around the world coming from poor nations that work really hard because even 200-300 dollars a month is a good money for them. I mean I would be in trouble with debt now, but if I have been working in a regular job, I would probably get paid 400 where I live, and in crypto I could make so much more money instead.

[goaldigger]

Compared to last year's rating, the ranking of the leading positions has not changed dramatically.



Vietnam still holds the lead. The Philippines has risen sharply in the rankings since 2021. The reason is known. It is especially popular there to make money with the help of cryptocurrencies, for example, through P2E applications, where you can earn much more than if you go to a regular job. Eastern European countries such as Ukraine are also rising in the rankings for obvious reasons, due to their difficult situation and hostilities. It is strange that South Africa did not make it into the top 20, despite the fact that this country has a fairly large increase in GSM transfers of bitcoin, without using the Internet.

What a huge adoption for the Philippines and actually that rise is because of P2E games especially with Axie Infinity and that was the start that many gets interested to know more about cryptocurrency. It’s actually good to see my country on the top list and now our government is showing some interest to introduce cryptocurrency and educate more people about it. This is a good opportunity for the developing country, this helps a lot of many people. Anyway, I’ve heard some good news with African countries already and maybe they are still not on the list because data is not available yet, let’s see by next year if there’s a big improvements.

[BIT-BENDER]

This analysis and mapping is very realistic, I have seen some other analysis about Crypto-currency usage rankings but some of them really weren't spot on it's great to see developing countries in the first twelve on the list and that's Vietnam, Philippines, India , Pakistan and Nigeria. With so much control of the very wealthy ones with Fiat and this rich guys relationship with the government making laws, tax evading and other means to keep enriching the already wealthy. Crypto-currency (Bitcoin) is a hope for the average man. So am not surprised that top of the list is packed with developing countries.

Personally I see Nigeria climbing upward the list, and I can attribute the drop in positions due to the stands of the Nigerian government against crypto usage. Regardless citizens of Nigeria still believes in Nigeria and adopts it. With the general elections in Nigeria coming up and if the right person is selected, Nigeria can become a great force in crypto-currency.

[samcrypto]

That's a great list of countries that are slowly becoming more crypto friendly, I'm shock to see Philippines on the list since I know we are still not that crypto friendly compare to other countries but yes, with a help of many P2E games before many adopt cryptocurrency it's just that they are just riding with the hype and most of those are really not familiar about cryptocurrency and that's why many lose the money as well and they lose their interest again with cryptocurrency. With that list positively, I hope more countries will become more crypto friendly, it's good to feel that you can actually use your Bitcoin when you do travel abroad.

[Jody.Drummer]

The list of countries that may adopt crypto is not entirely accurate. Plus China now seems hostile towards crypto as they stopped mining Bitcoin there. Whether this is legal or not, there is only a recent announcement where Indonesia has now inaugurated the largest crypto mining, chaired directly by the Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly of the Republic of Indonesia and the Head of Law Enforcement, Defense, and Security Relations Agency Bambang Soesatyo. This shows that from 2021 to 2022 it will reach $57 billion. I am optimistic because for big things in our country, crypto has been seen as special and will have an ideal and friendly position with the people.

[Jatiluhung]

then I feel something is not suitable. but maybe i'm wrong. because the categories taken may be different. but when it comes to crypto adoption. So this year, adoption from countries in the African continent should be much more than from China. like nigeria. although recently there was a ban there.
for India I believe the country fits in 4th position because before there was an increase in crypto taxes in India. Of course we know from there that many good crypto projects have sprung up like Matic (polygon). and many other projects. and if we look at the indian crypto community in telegram groups. then it is true very much and continues to increase.
although lately crypto transactions have decreased dramatically after the policy of the Indian government regarding the increase in crypto taxes.
for China, if you look at it before there was a ban from the Chinese government, it is natural that China was in position 10. But after the ban there was a decline. but considering the Chinese population is indeed a lot. so I think it's still reasonable. but I still believe that there is more crypto adoption in Indonesia. I even now at work almost all of my friends talk about crypto. even artists in Indonesia have their own crypto projects. Even now universities and ministries are collaborating in Indonesia to build a crypto project about Metaverse University. even I hope my country can imitate Indonesia.
but the data from the survey is sometimes not always the same from every survey agency.

[Charles-Tim]

Let no one be offended, but to me it seems like a bunch of random nonsense, especially if China is in the top 10, and also Thailand, which banned cryptocurrencies as a means of payment about half a year ago, as well as Turkey, which is on 12 place. What kind of adaptation are they talking about then?

Let us take China as an example. China banned crypto and crypto mining in 2021. Bitcoin mining hashrate in China went to 0 in July 2021. But now, China bitcoin mining hashrate as gone up to significant level again as I read about it in early days of this year. China banned bitcoin and bitcoin mining, but I do not see it surprising to see China among the top countries on the list, even now the second, after US which is the first. Taking the place of Kazakhstan, which was second after the ban, now the third.

You can check Statista data about bitcoin mining hashrates here:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1200477/bitcoin-mining-by-country/

Check what I read about this some months ago:
China returns as 2nd top Bitcoin mining hub despite the crypto ban

It was news, but according to what I have found out, the news was never a lie.

Let us differentiate between implicit ban and total ban. Any ban that is related to the the arms of government not involved are just implicit ban. If the ban is not passed into law by the legislative arm of government (I am using my country as an example), that is not a total ban and the citizens still have right to buy and sell crypto individually, but not for businesses etc. Central Bank and Security Exchange Commission ban are all implicit ban, they can not stop citizens to totally stop the use of bitcoin or other crypto.

Thai crypto ban: Payments banned Even though Thailand is leading the world in the proportion of internet users owning cryptocurrencies (20.1% of Thais aged 16-64), the country's regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, announced that it has banned cryptocurrency payments for goods and services - starting on April 1st.

On 16 April 2021, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey issued a regulation banning the use of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, directly or indirectly, to pay for goods and services.

As you pointed out, our country has pretty good crypto laws and is one of the rare countries where you can go to a physical crypto exchange and buy/sell crypto without doing any KYC (up to a certain amount) + that you can also buy and sell crypto in our post offices, yet we are far behind countries that have completely opposite laws and where is much harder to do any crypto related thing. Same goes for our neighbor Slovenia that is ranked even lower while its probably ahead of us when it comes to crypto adoption and should have been much higher.

Let us take Nigeria as an example, the Central Bank of Nigeria banned (implicit ban) the use of bitcoin and other crypto in the country, but it is the first country in Africa on the list. We that lives in Nigeria knew that Nigerians are so much involved in crypto trading and other usage because Nigerian Naira is declining at a higher rate and the inflation has so much more gotten worse.

I think we should also take the methodology used into consideration.

Nominal estimation is not used. Instead, purchase power parity is used. If the cryptocurrency value received at centralized exchanges, weighted by purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita, on-chain retail value received at centralized exchanges, weighted by PPP per capita, Peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange trade volume, weighted by PPP per capita and number of internet users, on-chain cryptocurrency value received from DeFi protocols, weighted by PPP per capita and on-chain retail value received from DeFi protocols, weighted by PPP per capita are not estimated in PPP, but instead nominal, the result would be differ and likely be towards the direction you think your country should be.

[$anounimus$]

I think this Report presents an analysis of cryptocurrencies and the Five sub-indices used as mentioned in the column above are collected over time. The information presented here will help readers to better understand the cryptocurrency market as a whole. While we may here also realize that data is dynamic and influenced by many different factors and is not an absolute indication of the status of crypto adoption, we need to delve deeper into how crypto is used in business transactions, and what else is going on. on the market, such as global regulations and applicable restrictions, technical developments, global trader sentiment, and many other considerations.

[Fortify]

You can click on the above link to see the summary of the report. On the world map included, you can see the extent of the crypto adoption per each country. You can click on any country on the map to see the countries index score and rank.

What is grassroots adoption of cryptocurrency?
Think of it this way: We could easily rank countries by raw cryptocurrency transaction volume, which would give you a straightforward view of where the most cryptocurrency activity is happening. But that’s not what we’re interested in. The goal of our index is to measure where the most people are putting the biggest share of their money into cryptocurrency. While institutional activity is important to that, we also want to highlight the countries where individual, non-professional investors are embracing digital assets the most. You can read our methodology below to learn how we do that, then keep scrolling to see the top 20 of our index. You can also see where any country ranks using the interactive map above.

Methodology used is based on five sub-indexes, 146 countries were ranked between scale of 0 to 1, the ranking from 0 which is the lowest score, to 1 which is the highest score. For the sub-index calculation, countries transaction volume for different services and protocols based on web traffic are estimated.

In order to calculate our sub-indexes, we estimate countries’ cryptocurrency transaction volumes for different services and protocols based on the web traffic patterns of those services’ and protocols’ websites. Relying on web traffic data means that usage of VPNs and other products that mask online activity, but given that our index takes into account hundreds of millions of transactions, VPN usage would need to be extremely widespread to meaningfully skew our data. Experts we interviewed for the report generally agreed that our index matches their perceptions of the markets they operate in, giving us more confidence in the methodology.

The five sub-index used
On-chain cryptocurrency value received at centralized exchanges, weighted by purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita
On-chain retail value received at centralized exchanges, weighted by PPP per capita
Peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange trade volume, weighted by PPP per capita and number of internet users
On-chain cryptocurrency value received from DeFi protocols, weighted by PPP per capita
On-chain retail value received from DeFi protocols, weighted by PPP per capita

One if the key takeaways from the 2022 Crypto Adoption Index is that the overall adoption slows worldwide in bear market, but it remains above pre-bull market levels. But this is how crypto market has been, there are both bull and bear periods, the bear would follow the bull but as the adoption slows down in bear time, it is still above the bull time. This has led to the over increase in crypto adoption since bitcoin was created.

It's interesting to see how many of these are middle tier developing countries and it really does offer a good outlet for them. I've seen how American consumers get screwed over by endless fees and can only imagine what banks in some of these countries are able to charge - which had an even bigger impact when the customer has less money in local currency and overall earnings. At least the blockchain and crypto give the ability to keep driving down fees with new innovations, even if certain groups of miners will end up cornering most of the transaction fees eventually. It also helps people in these countries, which often have overseas family doing work, send money back without having to pay even more excessive international transfer fees that banks still charge.

[Lucius]

Yep, just another "crypto adoption list" that doesn't make much sense to me.

I think this is the fourth or fifth such list I've seen on the forum this year, and each has different results depending on what methodology they use and how many countries they consider in their research.

As you pointed out, our country has pretty good crypto laws and is one of the rare countries where you can go to a physical crypto exchange and buy/sell crypto without doing any KYC (up to a certain amount) + that you can also buy and sell crypto in our post offices, yet we are far behind countries that have completely opposite laws and where is much harder to do any crypto related thing. Same goes for our neighbor Slovenia that is ranked even lower while its probably ahead of us when it comes to crypto adoption and should have been much higher.

You can also buy whatever you want for Bitcoin (altcoins) online thanks to a webshop that is very popular, and some cities even allow you to pay utility bills with cryptocurrencies. However, I think that we as a country are very unknown even in Europe in terms of how crypto-friendly we are, so you can often hear how countries like Germany, Portugal or Slovenia are favored in this sense, and no one mentions us.

On the other hand, it may be an advantage to some extent - because we want to preserve some freedoms as long as possible, although I think that the loss of our national currency will have an impact on some things that we are used to.

[TheGreatPython]

One if the key takeaways from the 2022 Crypto Adoption Index is that the overall adoption slows worldwide in bear market, but it remains above pre-bull market levels. But this is how crypto market has been, there are both bull and bear periods, the bear would follow the bull but as the adoption slows down in bear time, it is still above the bull time. This has led to the over increase in crypto adoption since bitcoin was created.

There's no pre-bull yet that happened this year and the reason why the adoption slows down is because of the bear which is taking a long time to be finished. A lot of people are also observing before they enter things that are new to them. That's actually better than those who jump in immediately and ended up in major losses but if only those people know that bear is the best time to enter, they can earn much better than if they enter when the bull run is starting.

The information presented here will help readers to better understand the cryptocurrency market as a whole.

I think the information posted here is only about the chart. This thread doesn't tackle all the areas of crypto or the market but still thanks to this because this can give us an idea about the crypto adoption.

[Falconer]

I don't know what adoption the analysis is talking about, but I wonder why China is on the list there after banning trading and mining?

I don't know if it's adoption in the case of its use as a currency or just a case of trading. Trade should not be the expected adoption because the average country does not prohibit trade but prohibits its use as legal tender. I may be wrong here regarding the analysis, and I have to understand it properly.

But now it's clear.

What is grassroots adoption of cryptocurrency?
Think of it this way: We could easily rank countries by raw cryptocurrency transaction volume, which would give you a straightforward view of where the most cryptocurrency activity is happening. But that’s not what we’re interested in. The goal of our index is to measure where the most people are putting the biggest share of their money into cryptocurrency. While institutional activity is important to that, we also want to highlight the countries where individual, non-professional investors are embracing digital assets the most.

[kryptqnick]

While the sub-index categories are questionable (I am not sure they're all equally important and that it's also enough to look at these 5 things to determine adoption), I am happy to see my country so high up the list. It sounds about right because cryptos are indeed quite popular here, but then again, maybe it's not on the level of being #3 in the world.
I was, however, surprised by the low ranking of El Salvador. I know Chainanalysis is assessing the grassroots adoption, so governmental initiatives don't really count, but it's sad that such a friendly approach to cryptos from the state didn't motivate people to boost adoption.

[Lucius]

But now it's clear.

What is grassroots adoption of cryptocurrency?
The goal of our index is to measure where the most people are putting the biggest share of their money into cryptocurrency.

Well, if that is their main criterion, then they are very bad at collecting data on how many people in a particular country invest in cryptocurrencies. For example, some time ago in my country, information was published that only on local crypto exchanges the annual turnover was equal to stock trading, which of course disturbed some centralist institutions to start their FUD campaigns.

Even if we take into account what they take as the main criterion, China, where crypto trading is prohibited, according to that criterion, it should not be on the list at all - because where does the US company get the data on private investments of the Chinese? Maybe they call random numbers in China and ask people "have you invested in Bitcoin"?

[erep]

Even if we take into account what they take as the main criterion, China, where crypto trading is prohibited, according to that criterion, it should not be on the list at all - because where does the US company get the data on private investments of the Chinese? Maybe they call random numbers in China and ask people "have you invested in Bitcoin"?

Recipients should consult their own advisors before making these types of decisions. Chainalysis has no responsibility or liability for any decision made or any other acts or omissions in connection with Recipient’s use of this material.

I quote additional information from the same article source, at the end it is clearly stated that the crypto ban in China has not been effective and there is leeway because it may not be a permanent ban. without the implementation of strict crypto bans then there are still ways to gain access to data from various sources regarding the total population that has invested in Bitcoin.

So for the list of countries where the status of the ban on the use of cryptocurrencies cannot be guaranteed the accuracy of the data because there are more other crypto users who allow themselves to be anonymous so they are not included in the data collection held by local exchanges or the government.

[_act_]

I quote additional information from the same article source, at the end it is clearly stated that the crypto ban in China has not been effective and there is leeway because it may not be a permanent ban. without the implementation of strict crypto bans then there are still ways to gain access to data from various sources regarding the total population that has invested in Bitcoin.

So for the list of countries where the status of the ban on the use of cryptocurrencies cannot be guaranteed the accuracy of the data because there are more other crypto users who allow themselves to be anonymous so they are not included in the data collection held by local exchanges or the government.

Even, crypto possession is legal in China. Only its business use, use as currencies and crypto mining are banned.

You can read this news: Possession of Bitcoin still legal in China despite the ban, lawyer says

Despite enforcing a major cryptocurrency ban one year ago, the Chinese government still protects local crypto investors as crypto is recognized as virtual property protected by the law.

One of the world’s most hostile countries toward Bitcoin (BTC), China has not yet banned the possession of cryptocurrencies, according to David Lesperance, founder of Lesperance & Associates law firm.

Crypto holders in China are protected by the law in case of theft, misappropriation or breach of a loan agreement, Lesperance told Cointelegraph. He emphasized that crypto exchanges are still banned in China.

Aside that, even China is the second country with miners that have highest generated mining hashrates now.