Even as the Modi government looks toward regulating the cryptocurrency ecosystem in India, the craze around Bitcoin and other cryptos among users in India is significant. In fact, based on the total global searches over the last 12 months, the number of crypto owners, the global crypto adoption index, and other factors, India is currently the seventh most ‘crypto-aware’ country. The country was ranked among 50 nations on the level of interest and awareness for cryptos among its people in the latest study by the broker discovery and comparison platform BrokerChooser.
On a crypto awareness score of 10, India scored 4.39, ahead of countries such as Australia, Singapore, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, etc. Ukraine topped the chart with a 7.97 score followed by Russia, the US, Kenya, South Africa, and the UK. The crypto phrases included in the search were cryptocurrency, compare cryptocurrency, what cryptocurrency to invest in, cryptocurrency to buy, cryptocurrency trading, cryptocurrency trends, and cryptocurrency brokers.
The data is also interesting around total crypto searches, the number of crypto owners, and global crypto adoption index. For instance, India had second-highest number (nearly 36 lakh) of total crypto searches, while the US saw the highest number of crypto searches. With respect to the number of crypto owners, India topped the tally with over 10 crore owners followed by the US and Russia. India was ranked second out of 154 countries on the 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index by Chainalysis in August this year.
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At the end of Q2 2021, the global crypto adoption grew by more than 2300 per cent since Q3 2019 and over 881 per cent in the last year, the index had said. The reason for that is “in emerging markets was that many turn to cryptocurrency to preserve their savings in the face of currency devaluation, send and receive remittances, and carry out business transactions, while adoption in North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Asia over the last year has been powered largely by institutional investment.”
Cryptos’ role in job creation also is gaining emphasis now. From around 50,000 individuals currently, the industry has the potential to create more than 8 lakh jobs by 2030, while the industry is expected to reach $241 million in size by 2030 in India, Nasscom had said in a report published last month in partnership with crypto exchange WazirX. So far, $6.6 billion have been invested by Indian retail investors in cryptos even as the market, which includes crypto applications in trading, P2P payments, remittances, and retail among others, grew 39 per cent in the last five years in India.
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