Cryptocurrency adoption is experiencing a significant surge in South and Central Asia, driven by the emergence of real-world use cases, according to blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis.
During a recent webinar discussing the Chainalysis 2023 Geography of Cryptocurrency report, Chengyi Ong, head of APAC policy at Chainalysis, mentioned the growing use of digital assets in countries like India and Vietnam, where crypto adoption is outpacing other regions.
She emphasized that the adoption trend in the region is primarily fueled by tangible use cases such as blockchain-based gaming, remittances, and protection against currency volatility.
“Where fundamental drivers are strong and where digital assets have real-world value to offer, adoption will follow in some way, shape or form.”
The webinar, led by Kim Grauer, research director at Chainalysis, noted the popularity of cricket-themed non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in India and the success of the Axie Infinity blockchain game developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis.
These examples illustrate widely-used commercial applications that have attracted users to the world of crypto.
Grauer explained that these innovative use cases bring in a new cohort of users who become native to crypto, driving further adoption.
Chainalysis’ 2023 Geography of Cryptocurrency report revealed that global crypto adoption has decreased significantly since its peak in Q2 2021.
However, the report highlighted an exception for low-to-middle-income (LMI) countries, which includes nations in the Asia Pacific region such as Pakistan and India.
LMIs, accounting for 40% of the world’s population, have now returned to pre-FTX levels of adoption.
The collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange in November 2022 had a
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