Chainalysis’ recent report, called “The 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index,” revealed that digital asset adoption has slowed down in the past 12 months due to the crypto winter but remains above pre-bull market levels.
The leader from 2021 – Vietnam – was placed first again, while the Philippines and war-torn Ukraine followed shortly after. Interestingly, China (where the interest in bitcoin plunged significantly due to the crypto ban in 2021) re-entered the top 10.
The New Trends
After growing consistently since mid-2019, the cryptocurrency global adoption rate has cooled off, said Chainalysis in its recent research.
The entity applied its index methodology to 154 countries and estimated that Vietnam is again the world’s crypto adoption leader, 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 South East Asian region.
Another Chainalysis study found that 21% of Vietnamese consumers have used or owned digital assets at one point during their lives. The first place goes to Nigeria, where 32% of the locals have transacted 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 could explain why some residents 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, the Philippines, Ukraine, Nigeria, Indonesia) and upper-middle-income ones (Brazil, Thailand, Argentina, Turkey).
Still, two high-income countries – the USA and the UK – have also found a place on the leaderboard and are respectively 5th and 17th.
It is worth noting that China has shown some improvement. Due to the total ban on everything crypto imposed by the domestic government last year, the nation was 13th in 2021, while in the past 12 months, it has climbed the ladder and is now 10th.
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. Back then, it was at its all-time high, prompted mainly by the rising prices of most digital assets.
After that period, the numbers moved in waves. When prices tumbled in Q3 2021, so did global crypto adoption, while in Q4, bitcoin and many other coins tapped new ATH, and logically consumers’ interest in the sector surged again.
So far, 2022 has not been that dynamic because of the bear market that has reigned for the bigger part of the year. Despite that negative trend, Chainalysis stated that global cryptocurrency adoption remains higher than pre-bull market levels from 2020.
Many HODLers do not find the downturn as a significant challenge and do not plan to sell their ownings, the entity concluded:
“Big, long-term cryptocurrency holders have continued to hold through the bear market, and so while their portfolios have lost value, those losses aren’t locked in yet because they haven’t sold— the on-chain data suggests those holders are optimistic the market will bounce back, which keeps market fundamentals relatively healthy.”
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