India Has Highest Number of Cryptocurrency Owners in the World at Over 10 Crore: Report

While India has 10.07 crore cryptocurrency owners, the US has 2.74 crore, while Russia has 1.74 crore.

By Shomik Sen Bhattacharjee | Updated: 13 October 2021 20:02 IST

India Has Highest Number of Cryptocurrency Owners in the World at Over 10 Crore: Report

India was recently placed second on 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index

Highlights

Despite its uncertain legal standing, India has a lot of crypto buyers
Crypto adoption in the country has seen a dramatic rise in 2021
A legislative framework for cryptocurrency could boost adoption

Cryptocurrency's legal standing in India is uncertain but that hasn't dampened the spirit of Indians from investing in the asset. As per an annual proliferation index put together by broker discovery and comparison platform BrokerChoose, India has the highest number of cryptocurrency owners globally in terms of an individual number of holders. The United States and Russia were ranked a fairly distant second and third, respectively. In terms of number of crypto owners in terms of population, India has the fifth-highest crypto ownership rate, but the country's sheer population blows other countries away.

Based on the percentage of a country's population who are crypto owners, the rankings are led by Ukraine (12.73 percent), Russia (11.91 percent), Kenya (8.52 percent), and the US (8.31 percent), while stood fifth with 7.3 percent. But since India's population is gargantuan in comparison to the likes of Ukraine and Russia, the two nations aren't even remotely close when we look at the total number of cryptocurrency owners. While India has 10.07 crore cryptocurrency owners, the US has 2.74 crore, while Russia has 1.74 crore.

The report also looked at cryptocurrency searches across nations. Here, the US saw the highest number of crypto-related searches followed by India, the UK, and Canada.

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Recently, Chainalysis published its 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index, which placed India second out of 154 nations.

The Chainalysis study also noted the role of big institutional investors in India who we're key in driving volumes. Accounting for 42 percent of transactions from India, the report also recently revealed that India's crypto industry increased 641 percent, with 59 percent of activity occurring on DeFi platforms.

That said, since the nation lacks a legislative framework and regulatory requirements for cryptocurrencies are still a fair bit away, India is still far from realising its potential as a powerhouse nation in the space.

Interested in cryptocurrency? We discuss all things crypto with WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty and WeekendInvesting founder Alok Jain on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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