India ahead of US, China in crypto adoption index

India ranks second in terms of crypto adoption, according to the 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index created by Chainalysis, which is the blockchain data platform. Vietnam secured first spot on the back of huge transaction volumes on peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms. The index’s objective is to capture which countries have the highest levels of cryptocurrency adoption.

Importantly, India ranks ahead of the US and China in the index. The blog states, “This year, the US ranks eighth while China ranks 13th. The biggest reason both countries dropped is that their rankings in P2P trade volume weighted for internet-using population declined dramatically. China fell from 53rd in this component to 155th, while the U.S. fell from 16th to 109th.” Last year, China ranked fourth on the global adoption index while the US ranked sixth.

Under P2P transactions, the exchange matches the buyer and the seller and acts as custodian. The money directly gets exchanged between both parties.

The blog on the company’s website states, “Many emerging markets face significant currency devaluation, driving residents to buy cryptocurrency on P2P platforms in order to preserve their savings. Others in these areas use cryptocurrency to carry out international transactions, either for individual remittances or for commercial use cases, such as purchasing goods to import and sell. Many emerging markets represented here limit the amount of the national currency that residents can move out of the country. Cryptocurrency gives those residents a way to circumvent those limits so that they can meet their financial needs.”

The index analysis 154 countries in terms of three metrics. The final number is given on a scale of 0 to 1. The closer the score to 1, the higher is the rank.

The blog states, “Several countries in emerging markets, including Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam, and Venezuela rank high on our index in large part because they have huge transaction volumes on peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms when adjusted for PPP per capita and internet-using population. Our interviews with experts in these countries revealed that many residents use P2P cryptocurrency exchanges as their primary on-ramp into cryptocurrency, often because they don’t have access to centralized exchanges.”