US investors realized 6x more crypto gains in 2021 than UK investors

Crypto investors from the United States realized crypto gains nearly six times higher in total than the United Kingdom, the second-highest country in terms of realized gains. 

According to a report by Chainalysis, crypto investors in the U.S. accrued a record $46.9 billion in realized gains throughout 2021, leading the rest of the world by a wide margin. The U.S. is followed at quite some distance by the U.K. at $8.1 billion and Germany with $5.8 billion.

The report comes as global cryptocurrency adoption continues to gain widespread traction. The U.S. witnessed a massive increase in adoption and realized gains, with the total estimated gains for 2021 up 476% from $8.1 billion the year before.

Special mentions were given to countries that outperformed their “traditional” economic rankings. Despite Turkey being globally ranked as number 11 by GDP, the country was ranked number six when it came to realized crypto gains.

China was one of the only large nations that did not see the same massive gains as other countries. In 2021, China’s total estimated realized cryptocurrency gains stood at $5.1 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 2020, which equates to a year-over-year growth rate of 194%. However, this is still impressive growth considering the extensive crypto bans that were progressively enacted in China in 2021.

China’s result pales, however, besides other countries such as the U.K. and Germany, which saw a respective 431% and a 423% increase last year.

Related: What is driving institutions to invest in crypto? BlockFi's David Olsson explains

Another notable trend was the increase in total gains from Ether (ETH), which saw ETH investors around the world cash out a total of $76.3 billion, beating out Bitcoin (BTC) as the highest realized earnings crypto asset in 2021. However, Bitcoin inventors still performed well, with the global crypto investing community securing $74.7 billion in gains throughout 2021.