Big backers, and bigger regional forces

In 2023, lower- and middle-income countries were driving cryptocurrency adoption; this year, adoption is spread more evenly between richer and poorer countries, said Diederik van Wersch, regional director of ASEAN and Hong Kong at blockchain data platform Chainalysis.

“The mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency could be a result of the launch of Bitcoin ETFs, which triggered an increase in the total value of Bitcoin activity across all regions,” van Wersch told TechCrunch.