Emerging markets in Central and Southern Asia have seen a significant increase in cryptocurrency transactions, showing a broad variety of motives among locals for obtaining access to virtual currencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

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According to a new analysis from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, cryptocurrency transactions increased 706 percent between July 2020 and June 2021 across Central and Southern Asia and Oceania – a wide region that includes nations such as India, Pakistan, and Vietnam. The total monetary value of the transactions was $572.5 billion, or 14 percent of the total global transaction value.

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According to a Chainalysis analysis, India’s market increased 641 percent over the last year, while Pakistan’s market climbed 711 percent, based on a measure that evaluates the total cryptocurrency received by a nation. According to the research, India accounts for 59% of activity on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms, while Pakistan accounts for 33%. There has also been substantial growth in cryptocurrency-related entrepreneurship and venture capital investment in the area. According to the research, DeFi is the major engine behind CSAO’s fast-developing crypto market, as trade volume on prominent DeFi protocols like Uniswap, Instadapp, and dYdX has surged in the last year. According to Chainalysis, India led the rise in DeFi usage in CSAO. The majority of the country’s cryptocurrency activity is focused on Ethereum (ETH) and Wrapped Ether (WETH). Both tokens are predominantly utilized in DeFi transactions.

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Large institutional transfers worth more than $10 million in bitcoin account for 42 percent of transactions sent from India-based addresses, compared to 28 percent in Pakistan and 29 percent in Vietnam. These figures indicate that bitcoin investors in India are part of larger, more sophisticated organisations.

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The disparities between the largest markets in Central and Southern Asia may reflect the fact that these nations are at various phases of crypto market growth. Many people first seek cryptocurrencies for rapid profits on speculative trading of various investments, which may be done on centralized services and traditional P2P networks, which appears to be the primary use case in Vietnam and Pakistan. However, in places like India, where the crypto community has developed and drawn outside investment, we are seeing increased development and use of new initiatives such as DeFi protocols.