APAC’s crypto adoption has tripled since 2022, with India leading global rankings while Japan and South Korea pursue strikingly different growth paths.
The 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report highlights Asia-Pacific’s emergence as the world’s fastest-growing centre for digital asset adoption. Tracking on-chain activity to measure both grassroots and institutional participation, the report underscores APAC’s growing influence on global markets and the diverse ways countries in the region are embracing crypto.
Between July 2022 and June 2025, on-chain transaction values in APAC rose sharply. Monthly value received increased from about $81 billion in mid-2022 to a peak of $244 billion in December 2024, representing a threefold jump in just two and a half years. Growth was especially strong in late 2023 and early 2024 when monthly volumes first crossed the $100 billion threshold, before accelerating further at the end of 2024 amid post-election rallies in the United States. Activity has since cooled slightly but remains robust, holding above $185 billion per month through mid-2025.
The region’s largest markets illustrate very different adoption patterns. India, at $338 billion, leads by a wide margin. Its growth is powered by a combination of grassroots and institutional activity, from remittance flows and youth-led trading to the widespread use of fintech systems such as UPI and eRupi. South Korea, the second-largest market, treats crypto almost like equities, with speculative trading deeply embedded in mainstream finance. Vietnam shows another pathway: there, crypto functions as everyday infrastructure for remittances, gaming, and savings. In Pakistan, a young, mobile-first population relies on stablecoins to hedge inflation and receive overseas income, while regulators are shifting from restriction to a more open stance. Smaller but advanced economies, including Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong, are meanwhile pushing adoption through reforms, compliance measures, and efforts to position themselves as digital asset hubs.
Japan is the most striking turnaround. Once viewed as a subdued market, it posted the fastest growth among APAC’s top five, with on-chain value received up 120 per cent in the year to June 2025. That compares with 103 per cent in Indonesia, 100 per cent in South Korea, 99 per cent in India, and 55 per cent in Vietnam. Japan’s resurgence stems from regulatory reforms, including planned tax changes and the licensing of the first yen-backed stablecoin issuer. XRP dominates domestic trading, with $21.7 billion in JPY-denominated purchases compared with $9.6 billion for BTC and $4.0 billion for ETH, reflecting Ripple’s partnership with SBI Holdings.
Several broader themes cut across the region. Stablecoins are becoming increasingly central, particularly in South Korea, where KRW purchases reached $59 billion in the year to June 2025 and volumes surged by more than 50 per cent following the introduction of USDT/KRW pairs. Trading culture also varies widely. In Korea, nearly half of all activity comes from professional-sized transactions between $10,000 and $1 million—well above global averages—while India’s growth remains rooted in grassroots participation from students, freelancers, and local communities.
The findings suggest that crypto adoption is broadening across income levels, echoing global trends. Lower-income markets such as Pakistan use digital assets for everyday resilience, while higher-income economies such as Japan and South Korea highlight speculative and professional trading. Together, these dynamics reinforce APAC’s role not only as the fastest-growing region for cryptocurrency adoption but also as a bellwether for how digital assets will integrate into economies at every level.
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