Pakistan among top drivers of crypto growth in APAC

September 05, 2025 (MLN): Pakistan has emerged as one of the leading drivers of global crypto adoption, ranking alongside India and Vietnam in powering Asia-Pacific’s rise as the global hub of grassroots digital asset activity, according to the Global Crypto Adoption Index 2025.

The index, which measures adoption through four sub-indices based on countries’ usage of different cryptocurrency services, ranks 151 nations by weighting population size, purchasing power, and transaction patterns, normalizing results on a scale from 0 to 1.

The closer a country’s score is to 1, the higher its rank.

The methodology relies on web traffic data from hundreds of millions of cryptocurrency transactions and over 13 billion visits to crypto platforms, cross-verified with local expert insights.

While VPN use may obscure some user locations, the dataset’s scale makes such distortions marginal.

In the 12 months ending June 2025, APAC recorded a 69% year-over-year increase in on-chain crypto activity, with transaction volume rising from $1.4 trillion to $2.36tr.

Pakistan, India, and Vietnam led this growth through both centralized and decentralized services.

Latin America followed with 63% growth, Sub-Saharan Africa with 52%, North America with 49%, Europe with 42%, and MENA with 33%, highlighting broad-based expansion, particularly in the Global South where crypto’s utility in remittances and payments is strong.

North America and Europe remained dominant in absolute terms, receiving $2.2tr and $2.6tr in transaction volume, respectively.

North America’s growth was fueled by renewed institutional interest, regulatory clarity, and spot bitcoin ETFs, while Europe’s gains underscored sustained institutional activity.

Adjusting the index for population reveals different leaders, with Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia topping the list.

In Eastern Europe, high technical literacy, economic uncertainty, inflation, war, and distrust in traditional institutions have made crypto an appealing option for cross-border transactions and wealth preservation.

The stablecoin landscape also shifted significantly.

While USDT and USDC maintained dominance with USDT averaging over $1tr monthly transactions and USDC ranging between $1.24tr and $3.29tr newer stablecoins surged.

EURC grew 89% month-over-month, reaching $7.5bn by June 2025, while PYUSD climbed from $783 million to $3.95bn.

Institutional adoption accelerated, with Stripe, Mastercard, and Visa enabling stablecoin spending, and major banks like Citi and Bank of America exploring offerings.

Fiat on-ramp data showed Bitcoin as the leading entry point, drawing $4.6tr in inflows, more than double Layer 1 tokens at $3.8tr.

Stablecoins attracted $1.3tr, followed by altcoins at $540bn.

The U.S. dominated with $4.2tr in volume, ahead of South Korea at $1tr and the EU at $500bn.

Bitcoin dominance was highest in the UK (47%) and EU (45%), while South Korea displayed a more diversified profile.

Breaking the index into quarterly time series and income brackets shows high-, upper-middle-, and lower-middle-income groups advancing together, signaling broad global adoption.

Low-income countries, however, exhibited volatility due to policy shocks, conflict, and infrastructure limitations.

For example, Afghanistan lost all crypto activity following the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, illustrating fragile trends in the LIC cohort.

Overall, the 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index highlights accelerated global growth, with Pakistan standing out as a central force in APAC’s expansion and the broader shift of crypto momentum toward the Global South.

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