In 2025, APAC furthered its status as the global hub of grassroots crypto activity, led by India, Pakistan, and Vietnam, whose populations drove widespread adoption across both centralized and decentralized services, according to the latest Chainalysis report. At the same time, North America climbed to the second-highest regional position in the presence of regulatory momentum, including the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs and clearer institutional frameworks, that helped legitimize and accelerate crypto participation across traditional financial channels.
The 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index Top 20
APAC is the fastest growing region
In the 12 months ending June 2025, APAC emerged as the fastest-growing region for on-chain crypto activity, with a 69% year-over-year increase in value received. Total crypto transaction volume in APAC grew from $1.4 trillion to $2.36 trillion, driven by robust engagement across major markets like India, Vietnam, and Pakistan.
Close behind, Latin America’s crypto adoption grew by 63%, reflecting rising adoption across both retail and institutional segments. In comparison, Sub-Saharan Africa’s adoption grew by 52%, indicating the region’s continued reliance on crypto for remittances and everyday payments. These figures underscore a broad shift in crypto momentum toward the Global South, where on-the-ground utility is increasingly fueling adoption.
At the same time, North America and Europe continue to dominate in absolute terms, receiving over $2.2 trillion and $2.6 trillion, respectively, in the past year. North America’s 49% growth reflects a year of renewed institutional interest, bolstered by the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs and increased regulatory clarity. Europe’s 42% gain, while lower than other regions, still represents a substantial increase, given its already high base, highlighting the continent’s sustained institutional activity and expanding user base. Meanwhile, MENA saw a more modest 33% growth, suggesting a slower pace of adoption relative to other emerging markets, though total volume still exceeded half a trillion dollars.
Compared to the previous year, this cycle saw accelerated growth across nearly every region, with particularly sharp increases in APAC and Latin America. Last year, APAC grew by just 27%, but that number more than doubled to 69% in the most recent period. Similarly, Latin America jumped from 53% to 63% year-over-year, reinforcing the region’s trajectory as one of crypto’s fastest-growing hubs. Europe, MENA, and Sub-Saharan Africa also saw fast growth, suggesting a broad global expansion. Interestingly, North America’s growth rate also increased from 42% to 49%, further signaling that 2025’s regulatory clarity and institutional inflows are beginning to show up in transaction-level data.
Adjusting for population paints a new picture: A dominant Eastern Europe
Our index has traditionally focused on total activity adjusted for GDP per capita, an approach that worked best when crypto was niche and concentrated among high-volume users. But as adoption broadens, population-adjusted metrics offer a clearer view of where crypto is gaining real grassroots traction.
When we adjust our index for population, we uncover a very different set of leading countries. Countries in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, top the list, reflecting high levels of crypto activity relative to the size of their populations. A combination of economic uncertainty, distrust in traditional financial institutions, and strong technical literacy across the region might drive adoption in Eastern Europe. These factors make crypto an appealing alternative for both wealth preservation and cross-border transactions, especially in countries facing inflation, war, or banking restrictions.
Fiat on-ramping: bitcoin remains the primary entry point
To assess fiat on-ramping behavior, we examined purchases made on centralized exchanges between July 2024 and June 2025, where users acquired cryptocurrencies using fiat trading pairs. Each transaction was categorized by the higher-order classification of the purchased asset, allowing us to evaluate which types of tokens serve as the primary gateway into the crypto economy.
Bitcoin leads by a wide margin, accounting for over $4.6 trillion in fiat inflows during the period. That’s more than double the next-highest category, Layer 1 tokens (excluding BTC and ETH), which saw roughly $3.8 trillion in volume. Stablecoins ranked third at $1.3 trillion, while altcoins followed at approximately $540 billion. Other categories, including low-liquidity tokens, meme coins, and DeFi, each received less than $300 billion in fiat inflows.
Geographically, the United States remains the world’s largest fiat on-ramp, with over $4.2 trillion in total volume — more than four times the next-highest country. South Korea followed with over $1 trillion, and the European Union registered just under $500 billion. Bitcoin dominance — the percentage of total fiat purchases allocated to BTC – was especially high in the United Kingdom and European Union, at approximately 47% and 45%, respectively. In contrast, South Korea showed a more diversified onramp profile, with BTC accounting for a lower share of volume. These variations reflect differences in investor behavior, exchange preferences, and access to alternative cryptoassets at the point of fiat entry.
It’s important to note that this analysis only includes fiat onramping on tracked centralized exchanges and does not capture activity through OTC desks, informal markets like hawalas, or cash-based crypto shops, all of which may play a meaningful role in certain regions.
Adoption is spread across almost all income brackets
If we break the Global Adoption Index into a quarterly time series and segment it by World Bank income brackets, a clear picture emerges: high-, upper-middle-, and lower-middle-income cohorts crest together in this report. That synchronicity suggests the current wave of crypto adoption is broad-based rather than isolated – benefiting mature markets with clearer rules and institutional rails, as well as emerging markets where remittances, dollar access via stablecoins, and mobile-first finance continue to accelerate adoption. In other words, crypto adoption is truly global.
There’s an important caveat in the low-income country cohort (LIC). This basket includes several countries you wouldn’t ordinarily expect to sustain robust crypto usage, and that composition produces more volatility – brief surges followed by retracement – driven by factors such as policy shocks, connectivity and liquidity constraints, and conflict-related disruptions. Afghanistan, for example, is a LIC that Chainalysis identified as temporarily losing all crypto activity following the US withdrawal in 2021. The global peak signal is real, but LIC trends are more fragile and episodic; durable gains there will hinge on improving on-ramps, regulatory clarity, and basic financial and digital infrastructure.
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