Crypto adoption has grown significantly in the last two years. It is one of the fastest-growing trends ever experienced in the market, which is expected to continue over time. A look into the growth trend shows some unlikely drivers of this adoption. The NFT space is one that also grew into prominence in the last year, and according to the data, NFTs have contributed substantially to the adoption of crypto in some parts of the globe.
CSAO Embraces Crypto Through NFTs
Central and Southern Asia and Oceania (CSAO) have taken to crypto more in the last few years. However, where other parts of the world are driving their adoption through crypto coins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin, this part of the world has seemingly embraced non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Between June 2021 and June 2022, the crypto trading volume from this part of the world was almost $1 trillion. More interestingly was the percentage of this that was made up by NFT trading volume. Chainalysis reports that NFTs account for 58% of the $932 billion that was recorded during this time.
The same was the case for the web traffic that flowed towards crypto from this part of the world. Where NFTs accounted for the total web traffic, blockchain games came out to about 21%. However, instead of the usual profit chasing that was seen across other markets, it seems CSAO crypto users were moving towards entertainment.
NFT makes up more than half of crypto traffic | Source: ChainalysisThe growth of blockchain gaming across this region is also attributed to the low minimum wages of the countries. In places such as the Philippines, players can often make more than they would make in a month by playing blockchain games with a play-to-earn feature.
As the third-largest crypto market in the world, the numbers from CSAO are ultimately very important to the adoption of digital assets. Given this, the direction they drive towards also points to where most of the money ends up going.
Total market cap falls below $900 billion | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap on TradingView.comNFTs and blockchain gaming were not the only sole drivers of crypto adoption in the countries. Remittance payments have also become increasingly important in these regions, with remittance payments making up 5% and 9.6% of the gross domestic products of Vietnam and the Philippines, respectively. The low fees and ease of transfer have helped propel the crypto remittance markets in these countries too.
Stablecoins feature heavily in these remittance markets since they hold their value during transfer until it gets to the receiver. Likewise, ETH/WETH also featured heavily in the list of most traded cryptocurrencies, which also follows the NFT, blockchain gaming, and remittance growth in these countries.
Featured image from Entrepreneur, chart from TradingView.comA recent survey by Seedly and Coinbase unveils that 57% of financially savvy Singaporeans own cryptocurrency, with nearly half expressing optimism for its future. While crypto adoption is on the rise, concerns around market volatility and regulation persist among non-crypto users.
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