German crypto activity grows by almost 50 percent
According to a new report from analytics firm Chainalysis, Europe has the world's largest crypto economy.
According to a new Chainalysis report, Europe has the world's largest crypto economy. Of the top 10 crypto economies in Western Europe, Germany scores particularly high.
Countries in Central, Northern, and Western Europe (CEW) remain the largest crypto-economy sector in the world. This is shown by a new report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. According to the study, between July 2021 and June 2022, $1.3 billion worth of cryptocurrencies flowed into the CEW countries. North America is the second-largest region where crypto popularity has risen: $1.14 billion. The firm recently published its annual Crypto Adoption Index, illustrating the trend.
Although not enough for pole position, six of the top 40 countries where crypto adoption grew the most are in the West. Those include the United Kingdom (17th), Germany (21st), France (32nd), Spain (34th), Portugal (38th), and the Netherlands (39th).
Germany in Focus
According to Chainalysis, Germany plays a special role: in the top 10 crypto economies in Europe, on-chain activity in Germany grew the fastest. The crypto transaction volume for Germans in the period July 2021 to June 2022 rose by as much as 47 percent. The value: about $200 billion.
Only the United Kingdom saw a larger influx of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — percentagewise, Germany still tops the list.
"Germany showed greater interest in ETH than most countries in Western Europe and less interest in BTC, which left it more engaged in the rise and fall of DeFi," said Kim Grauer, Director of Research at Chainalysis. "We suspect this led to faster growth in Germany than in other regions, but also faster decline as DeFi markets cooled."
In smaller European countries, growth rates vary widely: Estonia grew by as much as 76 percent, while crypto activity in Malta halved.
Special Case: Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is listed as a separate region in the Chainalysis report. According to the report, $630.9 billion in cryptocurrencies flowed into the region during the period July 2021 through June 2022 — a little over 20 percent of global transaction volume.
The war between Russia and Ukraine has especially affected the crypto sector in Eastern European countries. The study found increases in crypto transactions for both countries shortly after the war began. Poland also saw a spike in March.
"Since the war, we’ve seen a lot of support for the crypto world in Ukraine," Grauer notes.
At that time, Russia recorded more than 2.5 million crypto transactions, while Ukraine and Poland each registered more than a million. While crypto activity in the Kremlin has fallen since the start of the war, there are signs of a rebound in Ukraine.
