This Is The Most Crypto-Curious Country In The World: Study

Cryptocurrency price tracker CoinGecko estimated that this year’s decline in the digital asset market had changed trends in the industry. According to the company’s research, Nigeria has emerged as the most crypto-curious nation worldwide.

Other recent reports revealed that Nigerians’ interest in digital currencies is due to their limited access to financial services and the monetary crisis prevailing across the state.

Nigeria occupied the first place

By observing several factors, such as Google searches that include the phrases “buy crypto” or “invest in crypto”, CoinGecko determined that Nigeria (with a score of 371 points) ranks as the most crypto-curious nation. The second position belongs to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while Singapore is third. CoinGecko’s co-founder – Bobby Ong, spoke about the results:

“This study provides interesting insight into which countries are still most interested in cryptocurrency despite the pullback in the market.”

He further outlined that residents of the countries at the top of the list are most likely to “buy the dip” and have predominantly entered the digital asset universe for the long term.

Over the past couple of months, Ethereum has gained momentum due to the expected transition from a Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism to Proof-of-Stake. Interest in the network appears to be greatest in Singapore, while Solana is the most popular among residents of Georgia.

Apart from showing great curiosity towards the industry, a large section of Nigerians have already become HODLers. A KuCoin study revealed that 35% of the country’s adults (or 33.4 million people) have owned or traded cryptocurrencies in the recent past. In addition, 52% have allocated more than half of their total wealth to the asset class.

A key reason to delve into the sector could be the limited access to monetary services in Africa’s most populous country, KuCoin stated. Despite being a financial hub in the western part of the continent, large rural areas of Nigeria remain without banking and fiat-based options.

The economic problems in the country are another factor. The inflation rate continues to increase monthly and is currently over 18%. As such, it is no wonder that some locals decided to diversify their portfolios with cryptocurrencies.

What about crypto ready countries?

Despite its curiosity about the digital asset market, Nigeria did not rank among the top 10 crypto-savvy nations worldwide. Number one in that statistic is Hong Kong, with a score of 8.6 points out of 10. Second and third are the USA and Switzerland respectively.

According to the research, these three countries have the most blockchain startups, the largest number of crypto ATMs, and friendly digital asset legislation and tax rules.

Touching on Google Trends, residents of Australia typed “cryptocurrency” into the search engine the most, while those living in Ireland and the UK rounded out the top three.