The Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index 2021: How does the UK shape up against other nations?

Chainalysis, the famous on-chain analysis company, recently published a study on the rates of cryptocurrency adoption around the world. Dubbed the Global Crypto Adoption Index, this study allow us to draw interesting conclusions about the direction crypto is developing in the countries of the world, and the UK – let’s dive in!

When compiling the study, the company analysed the crypto activity of users in 154 countries around the world and calculated an index for each country. The index takes values from 0 to 1, with 0 being a complete lack of crypto development in the country, and 1 being the ideal adoption of cryptocurrencies. The leader was Vietnam with a score of 1. The UK didn’t even feature in the top 20, losing out to countries such as Russia and Afghanistan. At the same time, no matter how high-tech the country may seem, the United States placed 8^th, behind the likes of Ukraine and Nigeria.

How the index is calculated

Chainalysis used three metrics to calculate the index:

• On-chain cryptocurrency value received, weighted by purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita. This metric takes into account the entire amount of crypto transmitted over their respective networks, adjusted for the level of wealth of each country’s citizens.

• On-chain retail value transferred, weighted by PPP per capita. This metric evaluates the total crypto activity among non-professional investors, taking into account the wealth of each country’s citizens. Here, transfers between individuals are taken as amounts of less than $10,000.

• Peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange trade volume, weighted by PPP per capita and number of internet users. This metric evaluates the entire value of crypto transferred between individuals, taking into account the level of wealth of citizens and the number of internet users. In other words, this indicator assesses how many citizens of the country invest a significant portion of their money into crypto assets.

Conclusions from the study

The index provides plenty of food for thought. Firstly, Chainalysis calculated how much the total index has changed across all countries. The sum of the indices of all countries was calculated and compiled on a graph showing the changes over the last two years:

As can be seen from the graph, the level of crypto acceptance around the world is growing at a tremendous pace. In fact, the index has grown from effectively 0% at the beginning of 2020 to 24% in Q2 2021. Although it has stagnated over the last quarter, crypto truly going global.

As another interesting point, it is worth noting the leadership of developing countries, including India, Pakistan and Kenya, accompanied by Europe’s Ukraine. According to the third metric alone, it stands in 40th place. It is also worth noting that India and Ukraine are among the five countries with the cheapest internet access globally.

Thirdly, note the fact that when it comes to P2P trading, the United States is 109^th and China is 155^th. Chainalysis attribute this to the fact that in the United States, crypto is more commonly transferred between institutions, not individuals, and in China – well, we remember what happened there. They drove away the miners and declared the digital yuan the one true crypto.

Where is the UK to be seen on this list? We will have to wait for the full report to be released later this month. I can already tell you that it won’t look great for us. The ongoing crackdown among banks is putting the brakes on any widespread crypto adoption for the moment. Furthermore, talk of our CBDC – dubbed “BritCoin” – has quietened down. Watch this space, we will keep you updated!