North America Dominates Global Crypto Market with $1.2T in Value

The latest report by blockchain data and software service provider Chainalysis has shown that the global crypto activity is driven by North America where the on-chain market value has reached about $1.2 trillion between July 2022 and June 2023. The region dominates crypto usage despite all the regulatory concerns and scrutiny taking place there.

According to Chainalysis, North America has led the world with 24.4% of global crypto transaction activity which is split relatively evenly between DeFi and centralized exchanges. In addition, North America is still ranked fourth in the 2023 Global Crypto Adoption Index. Notably, most of the crypto activity is driven by the United States, which ranks first overall worldwide.

As highlighted in Chainalysis’ blog post, the regulatory concerns and a chain of negative events like the collapse of the FTX exchange in November 2022 have led to a decline in crypto activity in North America. Besides, there has been a relative decline in North America’s stablecoin usage. Over the period between February 2023 and June 2023, stablecoins’ use fell from 70.3% to 48.8% of the region’s on-chain transaction volume. But again, this negative trend did not affect stablecoins’ status as the most widely-used type of crypto asset, and more than 90% of stablecoin activity takes place in stablecoins pegged to the US dollar.

Chainalysis explained:

“US regulators have a strong interest in exercising some regulatory authority over stablecoins, given the central role of USD-denominated reserves to these assets. Stablecoin regulation also gives regulators a chance to help ensure that the US is home to the cryptocurrency businesses that will play a big role in expanding how the U.S. dollar is used globally as the digital economy continues to grow. However, data suggests that more and more stablecoin activity is occurring through entities that aren’t licensed in the United States.”

The usage of decentralized finance (DeFi) has also significantly declined over the course of the last year, but this trend has been observed globally. What will help in the recovery is wise regulation. Currently, the US Congress is working to advance two promising pieces of crypto legislation aimed at growing the ecosystem safely.

Crypto Adoption in Other Regions

Speaking of other regions, Central, Northern, and Western Europe accounted for 17.6% of the total crypto value received, with the United Kingdom taking the lead and contributing more than double the volume of second-ranked Germany. The UK is ranked 14th in terms of global crypto adoption. DeFi has seen significant growth in France which takes the lead within the European region.

Central and Southern Asia and Oceania accounted for 19.3% of the total value received by cryptocurrency exchanges. India has surged ahead as the global leader in crypto adoption, with around $250 billion in crypto value recorded in the past year. Nigeria and Vietnam followed with a small margin.

In China, where bans have been in place since 2020, the total value of the crypto transactions reached over $75 billion in the 12 months leading up to June, with the majority being handled by centralized exchanges.