China Continues to Lead in Cryptocurrency

Analyst of Messari Mira Christanto published a report on the state of the Asian crypto market. With 42% of market capitalization, 20 top cryptocurrencies available in the region China plays a leading role not only as a country of origin of large projects, but as a place, from where it takes 90% of the volume of trade in the volume of $10,000.

In addition, the Asian country is still taking the leading position in Bitcoin hashrate, which accounts for 65%. For comparison, the following 9 countries with the highest Bitcoin hashrate combine only 35%. Among them are the USA, Russia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Iran, Canada, Germany, Norway and Venezuela.

The analytic company Messari indicates that in certain periods the yuan accounted for more than 90% of the volume of trading with Bitcoins. From the beginning of 2013 to the middle of 2016, the yuan was the dominant currency, after which it took over the Tether stablecoin.

Forex and CFD trading also increasing

Besides cryptocurrency, Asian region shows an active increase in Forex and CFD trading. The latter especially has gained a foothold in recent period, with Singapore and Malaysia dominating the field. The pandemic was another determining factor in the rising number of people involved in trading. People started to make a lot of money with online trading of CFDs, Forex and cryptocurrencies and this trend shows no signs of slowing down.

China and restrictive measures

However, over the past few years, China has introduced restrictive measures, which have had a negative impact on the whole of the crypto sector.

The largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world Binance, Huobi and OKEx are forced to request extended data from their users. Despite this, in 2020, the authorities have frozen the accounts of some users, "susceptible" in the trading of cryptocurrencies.

On the other hand, with the support of regional and local authorities, the mining sector has received serious development. Here you will find the largest number of manufacturers of devices for mining cryptocurrencies. However, the sector is still running into the uncertainty of regulation and the increase in pressure from the side of the government.

The miners work under a possible start of their activity and from time to time they come with power outages. It seems that in such an image the country's leadership keeps the market in strong hands, at the same time not hindering its development.

What happens in other countries?

Researchers note the interest of infrastructure companies in the development of the cryptocurrency market, which accounts for 60% of the world's population. This is not hindered by the Chinese authorities' ban on the activities of Bitcoin exchanges and the conduct of ICOs.

According to the report, in East Asia, 90% of transactions exceed the equivalent of $10,000. The region is more speculative than North America.

Among other factors that distinguish Asia in the crypto market, analysts named:

• Major stock markets (Japan, China and Hong Kong in the world's top 5);
• The proliferation of Wi-Fi, smartphones and mobile Internet;
• The popularity of electronic payments
• High percentage of young IT professionals and the development of fintech.

Asia is home to the headquarters of Tether, Cardano, EOS, Binance Coin and Tron. Projects form 42% of the total capitalization of the top 20 cryptocurrency market.

Six of the ten largest companies in the industry are also based in the region.

China is open to large mining companies Bitmain, Canaan and Ebang. 65.1% of the world's total computing power of the bitcoin network is concentrated there.

Another 4.3% is in Malaysia, which is ahead of Iran (3.8%) and entered the top 5 in this indicator after the United States (7.2%), Russia (6.9%) and Kazakhstan (6.2%).

In addition to leading positions on Bitcoin hashrate, China is the "home" for the largest cryptocurrency exchanges Binance, Huobi, OKEx and OKCoin. These sites together store the same amount of bitcoins as Coinbase.

Hong Kong has chosen the largest crypto-derivative exchanges as jurisdiction: FTX, BitMEX, OSL and leading funds. The reason was a vast base of institutionalists and wealthy individuals, low tax rates, as well as specialists with an investment background.

According to Chainalysis, by June 2020, Asia accounted for 43% of the $296 billion in transactions in cryptocurrencies. The value corresponds to the total activity of the United States and Europe.

Earlier, Chinese authorities banned citizens from buying foreign currency worth $50,000 a year. Capital controls have increased the popularity of Staplecoins, especially Tether (USDT).

In South Korea, one in three investors adds cryptocurrencies to the portfolio. The industry is invested by banks in Japan, which promote the idea of issuing security-tokens.

Earlier, analysts Jump Capital named India and Indonesia as one of the most promising countries for cryptocurrencies.