Today I'm going to share a research report; as usual, at the end, 'click the original text' to obtain the original report.
This research report was also published by Chainalysis, funded by the FBI:
1. Global Trends: Major players abandon Ethereum
This trend is quite interesting; for large transfers above 10 million USD, it is normal for stablecoins to decrease since these main players are increasing their holdings of BTC and altcoins. However, the main players have not increased their holdings of ETH; instead, their positions are even lower than last year!
Retail investors generally prefer to buy ETH and altcoins, and they are selling their precious BTC to increase their holdings.
This year can be said to be a brilliant year for Dex (decentralized exchanges); in most regions of the world, the growth of Dex has outpaced that of Cex (centralized exchanges).
Only in North America and Central South Asia (CSAO, including India, Southeast Asia, and Australia) can the growth of CEX suppress DEX, which may be related to the compliance progress of CEX in 2024~
The global crypto market can be divided into three tiers geographically:
The first tier includes North America, Western Europe, and Central South Asia, each market roughly accounting for about 20% of the global market.
The second tier includes East Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East (including North Africa), each market roughly accounting for 10% of the global market.
Lastly, the unique area is sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for less than 3% of the global market, considered a non-competitive territory.
However, the data obtained from exchanges by Lao Wang indicates that a large part of global liquidity is still among the Chinese, but these Chinese either use VPNs or are located all over the world, making it difficult to track geographically.
Then we will scan the characteristics of each global region, starting with North America:
2. North America: The global metronome
But actually, Canada's crypto scene is quite impressive, mainly because it seems sad compared to North America and the United States.
If we take out the global Top 20, it looks like this:
Therefore, the most critical factor in global crypto is the United States, uniquely high! Canada could actually rank 8th globally, which is considered a decent market.
Interestingly, there is a phenomenon in the North American market: there is less trust in compliance.
In 2024, the market share of compliance in North America actually started to decline.
North America has become the global metronome due to the presence of the United States:
When the U.S. rises, the world rises; when the U.S. falls, the world cries out.
3. Latin America: Crypto saves from inflation
Now let's take another look at Latin America; this place is actually very interesting, as many people will focus on Argentina's developments.
The Latin American market ranks second in global growth rate; considering that sub-Saharan Africa ranks first with a very small growth base, this achievement in South America is quite impressive.
The Latin American market mainly relies on the South American duo: Argentina and Brazil.
Let's take a look at the situation in Argentina, which has been suffering from inflation, where Milei has opened up crypto and imposed dollar controls.
Although many Argentine citizens have exchanged their Argentine pesos for stablecoins:
However, judging from the exchange rate of the Argentine peso, it has been stable in the past year:
It may be due to years of inflation troubles, where the local populace mainly exchanges for stablecoins to preserve value, rather than for investment:
We can compare it to wealthy North America:
Especially in Bermuda, the tax haven for the wealthy, the richer people are, the more they like Bitcoin.
Countries in Latin America, suffering from severe currency depreciation, trust the dollar more.
4. Central and Western Europe: North America's little brother
Now let's turn our attention to Europe, where the UK is the leader in this market:
Overall, the investment preferences here are still quite similar to North America:
The whole world exhibits this trend: wealthy places prefer Bitcoin, while poorer places prefer altcoins.
This round of on-chain mass adoption mainly relies on users from developing countries contributing to the growth rate, while Central and Western Europe is among the most proactive developed regions embracing on-chain, with a growth rate barely on par with the global average.
5. Eastern Europe: Growth under the Russia-Ukraine war
The Eastern European region is also a key focus for global attention; everyone is paying close attention to market developments under the shadow of war.
Although Russia has been removed from SWIFT by the United States, it still maintains connections with the world through cryptocurrency.
Especially in Russia, many exchanges do not even require KYC, allowing the local populace to feel secure from sanctions.
These that do not require KYC are mainly on-chain exchanges; Ukraine, as the country most severely affected by war, decisively transferred a large amount of assets on-chain in 2024, and it is unknown how much of this is U.S. aid.
6. Central South Asia and Oceania: The most dynamic crypto market
This region has a dense population, but many would not have expected the leader to be Indonesia rather than India!
Indonesia, with a population of 600 million, surprisingly surpasses India, which has 1.4 billion, in the scale of the crypto market!
Ranking third is Vietnam, with just over 100 million people.
Next are Australia, Thailand, consumer goods, and the Philippines.
Surprisingly, the Malaysian team favored by the Chinese ranks behind Pakistan, which is quite shocking.
Why do we say this region is the most dynamic? Because the development of each country is very distinctive.
For example, Singapore focuses on institutional services:
Indonesia, relying on some unknown mysterious force, achieved over 180% growth compared to the previous year, surpassing India to claim the regional championship:
Why do we say Indonesia is influenced by mysterious forces?
Because most of their funds are online, rather than in centralized exchanges that typically require real-name registration.
The reason India lost the regional championship is that in December 2023, India intercepted 9 exchanges under the pretext of local compliance:
Exchanges that are restricted include: Binance, HTX (formerly Huobi), Kraken, Gate.io, KuCoin, Bitstamp, MEXC, Bittrex, and Bitfinex.
7. East Asia: Rapid growth in Hong Kong
After the invisible champion China spread to the whole world, South Korea became the regional champion.
Moreover, South Koreans are indeed impressive in CX; they are the only major country where XRP trading volume exceeds that of ETH, and in some months, it can even surpass BTC.
Hong Kong, relying on its new crypto policies, has overtaken Japan and Taiwan, soaring from fifth place in 2022 to second place.
The annual growth rate is close to 100%
Although Hong Kong implements an open crypto policy, on the other hand, Hong Kong's defense against the mainland is stricter:
The transaction-related traffic from mainland regions has seen a significant decrease in 2024 compared to previous years.
Moreover, mainstream exchanges have indeed withdrawn from Hong Kong:
8. Middle East and North Africa: Crypto saves from inflation again
Many people think this region is dominated by wealthy Middle Easterners, but in fact, the champion is Turkey, which is suffering greatly from inflation, and it is a significant lead.
Thus, inflation is the best advertisement for cryptocurrency.
Like South America, Turkish people particularly like stablecoins:
The common people in Turkey have even exchanged 4% of the national GDP in lira for dollar stablecoins:
Interestingly, the exchange rate of the Turkish lira remained stable in 2024:
So one must admire the wonders of free market regulation.
Furthermore, the wealthy in the Middle East are not without strength; they are just slower to react, only entering the market in 2024:
The market growth rates of Saudi Arabia and Qatar both exceeded 100% this year.
9. Sub-Saharan Africa: The fastest-growing globally
The champion in this region is Nigeria, followed by South Africa, while the market sizes of other countries can be temporarily ignored.
