India Fueling One of World’s Fastest-Growing Crypto Regions
India, Vietnam and Pakistan are helping to lead the expansion of cryptocurrency markets in central and southern Asia.
(Bloomberg) -- Demand for digital coins in India is helping to make a region spanning central and southern Asia and Oceania one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets globally, according to Chainalysis.
The pace of expansion there is the strongest after the Middle East and much of Europe, with India’s market growing 641% and Pakistan’s 711% over 12 months. The Chainalysis report looked at trends over the year to June using a metric that estimates the total cryptocurrency received by a country.
Aside from India, the report flagged increased crypto adoption in Pakistan and Vietnam. The share of Indian activity on decentralized finance platforms was 59%, higher than the latter two nations. Regional crypto-related venture capital investment jumped, according to the report.
“Large institutional-sized transfers above $10 million worth of cryptocurrency represent 42% of transactions sent from India-based addresses, versus 28% for Pakistan and 29% for Vietnam,” the report said. “Those numbers suggest that India’s cryptocurrency investors are part of larger, more sophisticated organizations.”
The past year has seen a number of twists and turns for India’s crypto market, including on the regulatory front, with some reports that the country might try to ban or otherwise restrict crypto. Chainalysis pointed out that more recently it looks as though the government may simply favor taxation.
The nation’s celebrities are now being attracted to the sector, according to local reports. For instance, Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan has created non-fungible tokens -- digital collectibles -- and become a so-called brand ambassador for exchange CoinDCX, India’s first cryptocurrency unicorn.
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