India, Nigeria lead in crypto adoption

India and Nigeria have maintained the top two positions in the world in terms of grassroots crypto adoption but Indonesia is the fastest growing, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis’ annual report.

Since last year, Indonesia jumped four places to third as one of the fastest-growing crypto markets. Within the Central & Southern Asia and Oceania (CSAO) Region, Indonesia has the highest year-over-year growth at nearly 200% and the highest cryptocurrency value received, at approximately $157.1 billion.

As many as seven of the top 20 countries came from the CSAO region.

The U.S. maintained its fourth position from 2023, while Vietnam fell from third to fifth.

The report was the fifth such exercise undertaken by Chainalysis. It ranked 151 countries for which sufficient data existed between Q3 2021 to Q2 2024, with a slight change in its methodology. It excluded calculating P2P cryptocurrency exchange trade volumes and instead factored in DeFi activity.

India’s return to the top despite Indonesia’s charge could be attributed to the nation giving legitimacy to the crypto eco system, by recently registering both Binance and KuCoin, off shore exchanges it had previously taken action against.

The report also said Indonesia’s crypto market is not being driven by regulatory progress but by trading opportunities through alternative investment opportunities such as meme coins to make quick profits and a “higher share of both decentralized exchange (DEX) and decentralized finance (DeFi) activity than those of other countries in the region, as well as the global average.”