Top 10 countries with crypto adoption

Recently while going through a document by IMF on how to tax crypto, I discovered some interesting data published by Triple-ai on global crypto adoption by country. The global crypto adoption data as of 2023, estimates the global crypto ownership rates at an average of 4.2%, with over 420 million crypto users worldwide. The top countries by crypto ownership are:

1. USA: 46 million users
2. India: 27 million users
3. Pakistan: 26 million users
4. Nigeria: 22 million users
5. Vietnam: 20 million users

Here is a bar plot depicting the top 10 countries by estimated number of individuals owning crypto:

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https://preview.redd.it/ikwb28cg8lcb1.png?1100&format=png&auto=webp&s=5a95960bdaad5fbe121b63f1af7282332a983274

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And here are the top 10 countries by adoption as a percentage of population:

https://preview.redd.it/0afrl71mblcb1.png?1542&format=png&auto=webp&s=e970413ff86eff4747f7a7832f860a031b8005e9

Here is a scatter plot of the % adoption vs. log of population:

Note that I have excluded outliers (>10% adoption, specifically 5 such values) for clarity

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While you can explore the detailed rankings of 147 countries in the link I provided above, here are some interesting observations (and possible correlations?) I could get ChatGPT to dig out from the entire dataset:

1. Crypto adoption and economic development: The data shows that both developed and developing countries have high levels of crypto adoption. For instance, the United States, a developed country, has a high number of crypto users, while Vietnam, a developing country, has a high percentage of crypto ownership relative to its population. This suggests that crypto adoption is not strictly tied to a country's level of economic development.
2. Crypto adoption and financial inclusion: Countries with high levels of unbanked or underbanked populations, such as Nigeria and Pakistan, also show high levels of crypto adoption. This could suggest that cryptocurrencies are being used as an alternative to traditional banking systems in these countries.
3. Crypto adoption and political/economic stability: Countries with less political and economic stability, such as Venezuela, have higher rates of crypto adoption. This could be due to people turning to cryptocurrencies as a hedge against local economic instability.
4. Crypto adoption and technology adoption: Countries known for their high rates of technology adoption, such as South Korea and Singapore, have lower crypto ownership rates than might be expected. This could be due to regulatory factors, cultural attitudes towards risk, or other factors.

What do you think?