Asia accounts for almost half of all digital asset trading and is home to six of the top 10 largest crypto unicorns, according to a report by Messari, an online database for the crypto industry.
China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore are market leaders with deep pools of liquidity, adding that other Asian countries also have great potential to scale, Cointelegraph reports.
Messari researcher Mira Christanto wrote, “With Asia accounting for 60% of the world population, infrastructure companies across the world are interested in tapping the growing market.”
She added, “East Asia (mostly China) is dominated by larger trades with 90% of all volumes above $10,000. East Asia engages in more short-term trades over a wider variety of assets, compared to North America where the focus is more on long-term holdings of bitcoin.”
Citing Chainalysis data, the report said that over the 12 months to June 2020, Asia accounted for 43% of global cryptocurrency activity, or almost $300 billion in transactions. Crypto activity in Asia alone is equivalent to the US and Europe combined, Christanto added.
The report found that of the top 20 token projects, more than 40% of the market capitalization is based in Asia. Companies in the region account for 94% of bitcoin futures volumes.
“By the end of 2019, six of the top 10 largest crypto firms in the world were located in Asia,” the report said.
These were Binance, Bitmain, Canaan, Block.one, Ebang, and Liquid – with half of those directly related to bitcoin mining.
China currently controls 65% of the bitcoin hash rate, but Malaysia has also entered the top five, accounting for 4.33% of the global hash rate due to its low electricity costs, according to Cointelegraph.