Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (April 5): The number of cryptocurrency owners massively increased last year, with nearly half of all owners worldwide buying crypto for the first time in 2021.

Cryptocurrency news portal Cointelegraph on Monday (April 4) cited a new report from New York-based regulated cryptocurrency exchange, wallet and custodian Gemini Trust Company LLC titled “2022 Global State of Crypto” and said crypto adoption skyrocketed in 2021 in countries like India, Brazil and Hong Kong as more than half of respondents started investing in crypto last year.

Gemini polled 30,000 respondents in 20 countries between November 2021 and February 2022 to provide a picture of a rapidly expanding crypto ecosystem.

It said the number of such respondents amounted to 54% in India and 51% both in Brazil and Hong Kong.

It said Gemini also found that countries like Indonesia and Brazil are leading the world in terms of the share of cryptocurrency investors among the general population.

According to the report, 41% of respondents both in Brazil and Indonesia owned crypto, compared with just 20% in the US, 18% in Australia and 17% in Europe.

The report said crypto ownership rates are also significantly high in countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore and Israel, with 35% of respondents in the UAE, 30% of respondents in Singapore and 28% of Israeli respondents holding crypto.

Cointelegraph said the report also cited the uncertainty over crypto regulation and lack of education as two of the biggest impediments to mass adoption of crypto.

It said among non-owners, 39% of respondents in the Asia-Pacific, 37% in Latin America and 36% in Europe said that there is legal uncertainty around crypto.

Thirty per cent of respondents in the Middle East, 24% in the Asia-Pacific and 23% in Latin America also indicated that crypto tax reporting kept them away from buying crypto.

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