Vietnam Confirms Global Leadership in Crypto Adoption: Chainlight

Chainalysis’ recent report, called “The 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index,” revealed that digital asset adoption has slowed over the past 12 months due to the crypto winter, but remains above pre-bull market levels.

The 2021 leader – Vietnam – was placed first again, with the Philippines and war-torn Ukraine following shortly after. Interestingly, China (where interest in bitcoin dropped significantly due to the crypto ban in 2021) re-entered the top 10.

The new trends

After growing consistently since mid-2019, the global cryptocurrency adoption rate has cooled, Chainalysis said in its recent research.

The entity applied its index methodology to 154 countries and estimated that Vietnam is once again the world leader in crypto adoption, with a score of 1,000. One reason for the country’s second consecutive win could be the significant interest in blockchain-based games in the Southeast Asian region.

Another Chainalysis study found that 21% of Vietnamese consumers have used or owned digital assets at some point in their lives. First place goes to Nigeria, where 32% of the local population has traded with bitcoin or altcoins.

Second place in “The 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index” with a score of 0.753 belongs to the Philippines, while third is Ukraine with 0.694. The military conflict with Russia severely disrupted the Ukrainian economy, which may explain why some citizens decided to interact with digital currencies instead of fiat.

Overall, the majority of nations in the top 20 list include lower-middle-income economies (Vietnam, Philippines, Ukraine, Nigeria, Indonesia) and upper-middle-income economies (Brazil, Thailand, Argentina, Turkey).

Nevertheless, two high-income countries – the USA and the UK – have also made it onto the leaderboard and are 5th and 17th respectively.

It is worth noting that China has shown some improvement. Due to the total ban on all crypto imposed by the domestic government last year, the nation was in 13th place in 2021, while in the last 12 months it has climbed up the ladder and is now in 10th place.

HODLers remain committed despite the market plunge

In addition to the aforementioned figures, Chainalysis observed how the global cryptocurrency adoption rate has changed since Q2 2021. At that time, it was at its all-time high, mainly prompted by the rising prices of most digital assets.

After that period, the numbers moved in waves. As prices fell in Q3 2021, so did global crypto adoption, while in Q4 bitcoin and many other coins hit new ATHs, logically increasing consumer interest in the sector again.

So far, 2022 has not been so dynamic due to the bear market that has ruled much of the year. Despite the negative trend, Chainalysis stated that global cryptocurrency adoption remains higher than pre-bulk 2020 levels.

Many HODLers do not find the downturn a significant challenge and do not plan to sell their holdings, the entity concluded:

“Large, long-term holders of cryptocurrency have continued to hold through the bear market, and while their portfolios have lost value, those losses have not been locked in yet because they haven’t sold – the on-chain data suggests these holders are optimistic the market will bounce back , which keeps the market base relatively healthy.”