According to a recent poll by US cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, over half of all cryptocurrency owners in the United States, Latin America, and Asia Pacific acquired the digital assets for the first time in 2021.
The analysis showed that 2021 was a blockbuster year for crypto, with inflation in particular fueling adoption in nations that had suffered currency depreciation, based on a poll of roughly 30,000 individuals across 20 countries done between November 2021 and February 2022.
According to Gemini, Brazil and Indonesia top the globe in crypto adoption, with 41 percent of persons questioned in both countries indicating crypto ownership, compared to 20 percent in the US and 18 percent in the UK.
According to Gemini, 79 percent of respondents who reported possessing cryptocurrency last year did so for the long-term financial potential.
People who do not presently possess cryptocurrency and reside in countries where their currency has depreciated against the US dollar were more than five times as likely to indicate they wanted to buy cryptocurrency as a hedge against inflation.
Only 16% of respondents in the United States and 15% in Europe believed that cryptocurrencies protect against inflation, compared to 64% in Indonesia and India, respectively.
In the previous five years, the Indian rupee has fallen 17.5 percent against the dollar, while the Indonesian rupiah has fallen 50 percent against the dollar between 2011 and 2020.
Only 17% of Europeans reported owning digital assets in 2021, and only 7% of those who do not presently own crypto stated they wanted to purchase crypto at some time.
It remains to be seen if the adoption momentum can be maintained this year.
While the most popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin, reached an all-time high of more than $68,000 in November, helping to drive the cryptocurrency market value above $3 trillion, according to CoinGecko, it has traded in a tight band of $34,000-$44,000 for the most of 2022.
