The Vietnam Cryptocurrency Market Report 2022 shows that 16.6 million Vietnamese own digital currencies, with Bitcoin being the most popular asset.
The study, reported by local media, estimates that 16.6 million Vietnamese have purchased cryptocurrencies (about 17% of the country’s population). 31% of them have invested in Bitcoin, making it the most popular digital asset.
Research determined that Thailand is the only country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with more HODLers than Vietnam.
In addition to having a sizeable number of cryptocurrency investors, Vietnam is also home to several blockchain projects mainly focused on GameFi (game finance), NFTs or Web3.
Vietnamese have founded seven of the top 200 global blockchain organizations, including Axie Infinity, Coin98, and Kyber Network. Axie Infinity is one of the most popular blockchain-based games, peaking at nearly 3 million users in early 2022. Over the next few months, the user base dropped below 1 million before surging again in early 2023.
The game suffered a serious blow last March after North Korean hacker group Lazarus Group stole over $600 million worth of digital currency from Ronin Network, an Ethereum-related network that powers Axie Infinity. side chain. The project improved safety policies and resumed operations three months later.
A study conducted by Chainalysis, the Global Cryptocurrency Adoption Index 2022, ranks Vietnam as the world’s cryptocurrency adoption leader with a score of 1.000. The platform claims that one reason behind the success could be the region’s high interest in blockchain-based gaming. Notably, Vietnam also ranked first in the 2021 study.
The Philippines, another country in Southeast Asia, ranked second with a score of 0.753, while war-torn Ukraine ranked third with a score of 0.694.
Most of the countries in the top 20 include lower-middle-income economies, such as Nigeria and Indonesia, as well as upper-middle-income economies (Argentina, Brazil, Turkey).
The world's two super economies - the United States and the United Kingdom - have also found their place, ranking 5th and 17th respectively.