rewrite this title Who Really Used Crypto in 2025? A New Global Adoption Map

The use of crypto in 2025 assumed a rather practical dimension. While institutional investment contributed to growth in the U.S. and Europe, emerging markets turned digital assets into tools for everyday finance, enabling remittances, hedging against inflation, and creating new economic opportunities. Stablecoins became the global backbone of cross-border remittances, driving transactions across platforms on a global scale. 

This report shows a global map of crypto adoption, revealing which markets, users, and technologies defined adoption, and why the real narrative is not about hype but about utility, access, and structural integration into the global financial system.

Asia Strikes Again!

If one region defined crypto adoption in 2025, it was Asia. No other part of the world matched its combination of retail scale, economic incentives, stablecoin dependence, and fast-maturing policy environments. Chainalysis data reinforces this trend: In 12 months ending June 2025, Asia-Pacific (APAC) recorded a 69% year-over-year surge in on-chain activity, with total transaction volume rising from $1.4 trillion to $2.36 trillion. India, Vietnam, and Pakistan were among the primary engines of this growth.

Taken together, the numbers show that Asia is no longer just a high-population region dabbling in crypto; it is the world’s most active, structurally important crypto corridor.

India: The center of gravity

India held onto its #1 position in 2025, driven by a rare combination of scale, digital readiness, and rising domestic sophistication. A massive, tech-native population continues to adopt crypto through mobile-first fintech platforms, while a growing class of retail traders participates in both spot and derivatives markets. India’s vibrant Web3 developer ecosystem also adds structural depth to adoption, attracting global attention and investment.

Also Read: India’s Grassroots Crypto Surge: A Beacon for Financial Inclusion or a Regulatory Dilemma?

Pakistan: high demand + meaningful policy shifts

Pakistan’s rise into the global top tier reflected the aggressive combination of consumer need and policy modernization. Stablecoins and crypto rails became essential for remittance-heavy households and a young population facing limited access to traditional financial services. The government’s establishment of a national crypto council and a dedicated digital-asset regulator in 2025 marked a turning point, sending strong signals to both domestic users and international investors. These policy shifts helped accelerate grassroots adoption, producing far more domestic on-chain activity than in previous years and demonstrating how regulatory clarity can catalyze real usage rather than suppress it.

Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia: Southeast Asia’s second wave

Southeast Asia continued a long-running adoption trend in 2025, but at a scale and depth far beyond previous years. According to TRM Labs’ 2025 global crypto adoption rankings, the Philippines (#4), Indonesia (#6), and Vietnam (#7) formed the core of this regional acceleration.

In all three markets, gig workers, freelancers, and online earners rely heavily on stablecoins for fast, low-cost payments. Remittances increasingly move through stablecoin rails and local exchanges that offer cheaper and faster alternatives to bank corridors. Fintech apps across the region also began integrating crypto infrastructure in the background, allowing users to transact without necessarily realizing they are using blockchain technology.

The U.S. Grew Strongly But Didn’t Dominate the Adoption Story

The United States retained #2 position in global adoption rankings in 2025, supported by robust digital-asset infrastructure and a growing presence of traditional finance. Unlike regions where crypto is embedded in everyday financial life, the U.S. revival was overwhelmingly institution-led, rather than driven by grassroots adoption. Transaction volumes rose by roughly 50% from 2024 to mid-2025, exceeding $1 trillion, fueled in part by nearly $15 billion in net inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs. 

An institution-led boom

The profile of American crypto users in 2025 reflected this institutional tilt. Bitcoin accounted for around 41% of all fiat-to-crypto purchases, highlighting the influence of ETF-driven demand and the continued preference for BTC as the simplest exposure for regulated investors. Hedge funds expanded their digital-asset allocations, corporate treasuries experimented with stablecoins and early tokenized debt instruments, and pension funds tested small-scale diversification programs. 

A market defined by regulatory clarity

This institution-driven growth was reinforced by one of the clearest regulatory years in U.S. crypto history. The GENIUS Act was passed, and the House approved the CLARITY Act, signalling bipartisan recognition that digital assets are a permanent fixture of the financial system. New guidance on custody, asset classification, and disclosure standards provided long-awaited legal certainty for institutional players. 

Strong growth, but limited retail adoption

Despite the scale of institutional activity, the U.S. did not emerge as the global center of everyday crypto usage. Retail participation grew, but not at the intensity seen in regions like Asia, Africa, or Latin America markets, where crypto addresses urgent, practical needs such as inflation hedging, remittances, informal FX access, and fintech-enabled payments. In contrast, U.S. adoption remained largely investment-driven, concentrated among higher-income users and professionally managed funds, rather than everyday consumers.

Also Read: Is the U.S. Still Behind in Crypto as 40% of American Adults Now Own Digital Assets?

Latin America Became the Most Diverse Adoption Region

Between July 2022 and June 2025, Latin America processed nearly $1.5 trillion in crypto transaction volume, solidifying its position as one of the world’s most dynamic and multifaceted crypto regions. The region’s unique blend of high inflation, currency volatility, and tight capital controls pushed millions toward stablecoins as both a financial refuge and a practical tool for day-to-day transactions. At the same time, Latin America’s role as a global remittance hub accelerated crypto usage for fast, low-cost cross-border transfers, giving the region a distinctly utilitarian adoption profile.

Also Read: Crypto in Latin America: Adoption Booms as Media Visibility Falls

Brazil: The region’s anchor and breakout leader

Brazil unquestionably dominated Latin America’s crypto landscape. According to Chainalysis, the country received $318.8 billion in on-chain value, nearly one-third of all activity in the region. With a staggering 109.9% year-over-year growth rate, Brazil emerged as LATAM’s most dynamic and influential crypto economy.

Brazil’s growth was broad-based, spanning all transfer sizes from retail purchases to large-scale institutional flows. While every segment expanded meaningfully, institutional and high-value transfers stood out, each growing by more than 100%, highlighting the country’s rising prominence in professionalized crypto markets.

The strength of Brazil’s adoption was also evident in local-currency fiat-to-crypto transactions, which grew faster than in Argentina, Mexico, or Colombia. Across the country, users increasingly engaged through centralized exchanges and fintech apps, with a large, active trading community underpinning growth. Younger participants in particular contributed to the rise of DeFi usage, expanding beyond simple trading to participate directly in decentralized protocols.

A wide gap after Brazil 

Following Brazil’s dominance, the next tier of Latin American crypto markets illustrates the region’s economic diversity and the range of adoption drivers.

Argentina 

Argentina recorded $93.9 billion in crypto transaction volume, driven largely by crisis-oriented factors. Inflation and currency instability created a distinctly survival-focused crypto ecosystem, where users relied on stablecoins for dollar-equivalent savings, peer-to-peer trading, informal payments, and business settlements. Argentina’s political reset in 2025 further intensified public debate around digital asset regulation, pulling crypto deeper into mainstream financial conversations. Over the past three years, mobile wallet usage in Argentina has increased sixteenfold, clearly indicating the rapid integration of crypto into everyday financial life.

Venezuela

Venezuela mirrored Argentina’s crisis-driven adoption patterns. With $44.6 billion in volume, citizens turned to crypto to safeguard wealth from hyperinflation, conduct informal commerce, and maintain access to reliable payment rails amid a collapsing local currency. Stablecoins, in particular, became essential for both households and businesses navigating extreme volatility.

Mexico 

Mexico recorded $71.2 billion in volume, showcasing a different adoption pattern centered on cross-border and commerce-driven needs. The country has emerged as a fast-growing remittance corridor, with U.S.-linked flows increasingly routed through stablecoins. Small businesses and merchants have adopted crypto payment solutions, fintech apps issue crypto-linked debit cards, and SMEs use stablecoins for import/export settlements, reflecting practical, real-world use rather than speculation.

Colombia 

Columbia recorded $44.2 billion in volume and exhibited cyclical adoption patterns influenced by local economic pressures. Despite fluctuations, crypto remained a reliable tool for cross-border payments, small-business transactions, and remittances, highlighting the region’s reliance on digital assets as a pragmatic solution to financial inefficiencies.

Peru 

Peru similarly demonstrated commerce-driven adoption, leveraging stablecoins and crypto infrastructure to facilitate remittances, merchant payments, and small-business operations. Across Mexico, Colombia, and Peru, crypto adoption was firmly rooted in practical, transaction-oriented use cases rather than speculative trading.

Together, these five countries account for the majority of Latin America’s crypto activity outside Brazil, illustrating a region defined not only by volume but by the diverse and economically nuanced motivations behind crypto adoption, from crisis-driven survival strategies in Argentina and Venezuela to remittance- and commerce-focused adoption in Mexico, Colombia, and Peru.

Africa’s Story Was About Utility, Not Speculation

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) entered 2025 with one of the world’s most utility-driven crypto ecosystems. Between July 2024 and June 2025, the region received more than $205 billion in on-chain value, a 52% year-over-year increase.

What makes Africa stand out is not the size of its volumes but how the technology is used. Over 8% of all value transferred in SSA between July 2024 and June 2025 consisted of small transactions below $10,000, compared to 6% globally. That gap tells a deeper story: crypto in Africa is intimately linked to financial inclusion, not speculation. This shows that crypto has become a natural extension of the continent’s digital financial evolution.

Also Read: Inside Africa’s Financial Reinvention: The Surge of Stablecoin Adoption

Nigeria led the region—powered by stablecoins and economic pressure

In 2025, Nigeria firmly cemented its position as the leading crypto market in Africa, receiving over $92 billion in on-chain value.

This dominance was fueled by a combination of economic pressures and a population increasingly turning to crypto for both practical and protective financial purposes.

A sudden devaluation of the naira in early 2025 played a central role, driving residents to seek refuge in digital assets as a hedge against inflation. Such currency shocks have a dual effect: they increase the number of people entering crypto, particularly stablecoins, and simultaneously inflate transaction volumes in local currency terms, as it takes more naira to acquire the same amount of tokens.

Nigeria’s economic environment also created fertile ground for stablecoin adoption. Persistent high inflation, limited access to U.S. dollars, and a significant gap between official and parallel foreign exchange rates made USDT and other stablecoins indispensable. Households increasingly used them for savings, small and medium enterprise imports and payments, informal cross-border commerce, and income from freelance or digital work. On

Bitcoin remained the overwhelmingly dominant asset, absorbing 89% of fiat-to-crypto purchases in Nigeria. For many Nigerians, BTC serves as a familiar brand, a reliable hedge against volatility, and a simple, trusted entry point into the crypto ecosystem. 

South Africa: A more institutional, regulated crypto ecosystem

South Africa’s crypto landscape presents a stark contrast to Nigeria’s, reflecting a market shaped more by institutional maturity than by immediate economic pressures. The country boasts one of the continent’s most advanced regulatory frameworks for virtual assets, with hundreds of registered virtual asset service providers (VASPs) operating legally. This regulatory clarity has created an environment where institutional players feel confident to engage actively in the market.

Patterns in fiat-to-crypto purchases further illustrate the market’s sophistication. South Africans allocate a larger share of their purchases to assets like Ethereum and XRP compared to Nigeria, reflecting access to deeper liquidity on centralized exchanges, more diversified investment strategies, and a higher proportion of users integrating crypto into broader portfolio management. Bitcoin remains the dominant asset, but its role is less about economic necessity and more a component of a structured investment approach.

East Africa: Crypto as a remittance and commerce rail

In East Africa, countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, and Rwanda experienced steady crypto adoption driven primarily by practical, everyday financial needs rather than speculative activity. Residents increasingly turned to digital assets for low-cost cross-border remittances, merchant payments, and alternative access to U.S. dollars via stablecoins. Youth-driven online trading communities also contributed to the region’s growing engagement, creating vibrant ecosystems for learning, experimentation, and peer-to-peer exchange.

Ethiopia, in particular, emerged as a surprising growth story. Limited access to foreign exchange, combined with rising fintech penetration, created ideal conditions for crypto usage. These dynamics mirrored patterns seen in other high-restriction economies, where technology adoption meets real-world financial necessity.

North Africa: Growth despite restrictions

Across North Africa, crypto adoption continued to rise even in countries with significant legal barriers, including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Despite restrictive frameworks, these markets consistently rank high in global adoption indexes, reinforcing a critical insight: bans do not eliminate crypto activity; they simply shift it to informal and underground channels.

In these contexts, digital assets serve practical purposes. Citizens rely on crypto as a workaround for capital controls, a tool for remittances, and a means of accessing dollar-denominated stability. While regulatory resistance persists, user demand remains robust, highlighting the resilience of crypto adoption in North Africa despite structural obstacles.

Europe’s Fragmented but Fast-Moving Crypto Map

Between July 2024 and June 2025, Europe saw a complex adoption landscape, one shaped not by a single unified trend but by sharp contrasts between Western markets, institutional flows, and the unusually intense activity emerging from Europe. 

Russia: The regional anchor

Russia solidified its position as Europe’s largest crypto market, receiving approximately $379.3 billion in transaction volume, up sharply from $256.5 billion the previous year.

This remarkable growth was fueled by two key drivers. First, a surge in institutional-scale transfers, particularly those exceeding $10 million, pushed activity higher, with large transactions rising 86% year-over-year, nearly double the rate observed across the rest of Europe. Second, accelerating DeFi participation drew both individuals and organizations toward on-chain protocols, shifting a significant share of activity away from centralized platforms. Together, these dynamics positioned Russia at the top of Europe’s crypto ecosystem, making it the continent’s most influential hub by absolute transaction volume.

Eastern Europe: Small economies, big crypto footprint

Adjusting for population tells a very different story; countries like Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Belarus, and Latvia consistently rank among the world’s most crypto-active nations per capita. Their adoption is fueled by economic instability, regional conflict, political uncertainty, and capital movement restrictions, making crypto a practical store of value and mobility tool rather than a speculative asset. The rise of cross-border work and gig markets further deepened reliance on stablecoins and on-chain payments, giving these smaller economies an outsized role in Europe’s crypto map.

Ukraine: Europe’s per-capita outlier

Ukraine has remained one of the globe’s highest-engagement crypto markets since 2022, with usage driven by necessity rather than investment. Crypto fills structural gaps, providing financial access, cross-border mobility, and transactional resilience, which keeps Ukraine consistently at the top of Europe’s population-adjusted adoption rankings.

United Kingdom: A mature, evolving institutional hub

While the U.K. ceded the top spot to Russia in total volume, it still recorded 32% year-over-year growth, reflecting a market that is evolving, not shrinking. Retail users increasingly migrate to DeFi and alternative trading venues, while institutional players continue to rely on regulated centralized platforms. This dual-track behaviour positions the U.K. as one of Europe’s most balanced and structurally stable crypto markets.

Stablecoins Became the Real Global Adoption Layer

In 2025, stablecoins quietly emerged as the backbone of global crypto adoption. Across nearly every region, they powered remittances, enabled savings in U.S. dollar equivalents, served as settlement rails for commerce, and became the foundational asset for trading and on-chain liquidity. Their utility extended beyond individual users, attracting institutional interest as a reliable infrastructure for payments and cross-border operations.TRM analysis shows that stablecoins accounted for 30% of crypto transaction volume between January and July 2025, with global transaction volume surpassing $4 trillion by mid-year, an 80% year-over-year increase.

By mid-2025, global stablecoin transaction volume had surpassed $4 trillion, reflecting growth of more than 80% year-over-year. While USDT and USDC remained the dominant players, smaller newcomers such as PYUSD, EURC, and various domestic-currency-backed coins experienced rapid adoption, demonstrating the growing diversity of the stablecoin ecosystem.

The integration of stablecoins into mainstream financial rails further accelerated their reach. Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, and multiple neobanks launched stablecoin payment products, while merchants across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia increasingly accepted stablecoins for settlement through fintech apps. At the same time, traditional banks explored issuing their own stablecoins or tokenized deposits, signalling a growing convergence between digital assets and conventional finance.

READ ALSO: 5 Powerful Charts, 25 Sector Drivers That Defined Crypto’s $4Trillion Year

What 2025 Tells Us About the Next Moves in Crypto

1. Stablecoins will become the real liquidity anchor 

Stablecoins became crypto’s settlement backbone in 2025, powering remittances, savings, and institutional liquidity, and 2026 will lean even harder on them. Builders need to double down on stablecoin-native wallets and payment tools, and policymakers will shape the landscape as they roll out clearer rules for assets that increasingly behave like cross-border money.

2. Institutional adoption will deepen through regulated products 

Regulated ETFs, clearer custody standards, and tokenization pilots anchored institutional flows in 2025, setting the stage for deeper participation in 2026. Traders should watch ETF and treasury inflows for shifts in risk appetite, builders should expand regulated infrastructure like tokenized bonds and enterprise-grade wallets, and policymakers will keep blending traditional finance rules with digital-asset oversight.

3. U.S. regulatory clarity will funnel more institutional capital, but not define global adoption

As U.S. rules stabilize, institutional allocators will keep leaning on ETFs, tokenized treasuries, and compliant rails in 2026, yet global adoption will still be shaped elsewhere. Traders can read ETF flows as a barometer of institutional appetite; builders should treat U.S. compliance as necessary but insufficient for global scale; and policymakers worldwide will continue crafting frameworks that matter just as much.

4. The next wave of crypto growth will be driven by function, not speculation

The markets that grew in 2025 rewarded products that actually moved money, protected savings, or opened access to credit, signalling a functional shift that will define 2026. Traders will favour tokens tied to real payment or credit ecosystems, builders will need to deliver tools people genuinely use, and policymakers will focus on frameworks that support practical financial access, not hype cycles.

Disclaimer: This article is intended solely for informational purposes and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein should be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading or investing in cryptocurrencies carries a considerable risk of financial loss. Always conduct due diligence. 

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