India’s cryptocurrency market is thriving despite the government imposing high taxes on crypto trading. Since the implementation of a 30% tax on crypto gains and a 1% tax deducted at source in 2022, the community has shown resilience, maintaining its position as a global leader in adoption, according to the Chainalysis Global Adoption Index.
Driven by its youthful, tech-savvy population, India is home to over 100 million crypto owners in 2024. Local exchanges like ZebPay and CoinDCX highlight how seamless conversion systems and blockchain interest are fuelling growth, even under challenging tax policies. However, experts argue these taxes deter frequent trading and could hinder broader participation.
Industry leaders and analysts believe India’s crypto ecosystem has yet to realise its full potential. Calls for a more flexible regulatory framework are growing, with hopes that reforms could further energise the market and secure India’s leadership in cryptocurrency adoption.
Eastern Europe is witnessing a significant increase in cryptocurrency activity, with over $499 billion in digital assets received between July 2023 and June 2024, according to a report from Chainalysis. Notably, decentralized finance (DeFi) activities contributed more than $165 billion to this total, accounting for about one-third of the region’s cryptocurrency transactions. This surge has propelled Eastern Europe to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency market globally, representing over 11% of total crypto value received worldwide.
Despite the ongoing war and international sanctions, both Russia and Ukraine are leading in crypto transaction values, with Russia receiving over $182 billion and Ukraine over $106 billion. The report indicates that large institutional transfers significantly drive Ukraine’s market growth, as investors seek financial stability amid turmoil. Local exchanges like WhiteBIT remain active, facilitating a surge in professional transfers, which have been influenced by global market volatility and inflation.
In Ukraine, the rise in Bitcoin transactions has been particularly notable, with purchases using the national currency, the hryvnia, exceeding $882 million in the past year. This trend follows a period of high inflation, which peaked at over 26% in December 2022, prompting many Ukrainians to view Bitcoin as a safer alternative for storing value.
Stablecoins are expected to lead the push for institutional adoption of cryptocurrency across Asia, according to Michael Gronager, CEO of Chainalysis. Speaking at the Token2049 conference in Singapore, he highlighted how stablecoins, whose value is tied to assets like the US dollar, are becoming a fundamental part of crypto trading. These digital assets account for two-thirds of blockchain transactions and are seen as a stable medium for both trading and storing value.
Despite Asia’s rapid uptake of crypto, with five countries in the top ten of Chainalysis’ Global Adoption Index, the US remains the most influential market. Gronager explained that much of the global trading volume originates from the US, and the industry continues to watch US regulators closely for signals on crypto policy.
Looking ahead to the upcoming US elections, Gronager believes the result will not significantly impact the crypto landscape, whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins. Instead, he predicts that moving beyond the election will bring stability to the sector.
India has maintained its position as the global leader in cryptocurrency adoption for the second consecutive year, despite facing stringent regulations and high trading taxes. A report by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis revealed that India performed strongly in both centralised and decentralised finance usage from June 2023 to July 2024.
India‘s cryptocurrency landscape has been marked by regulatory hurdles, including show-cause notices issued by the Financial Intelligence Unit to offshore exchanges for non-compliance. However, adoption remains widespread, with new participants entering the market through services that have avoided outright bans.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, faced significant regulatory challenges, including a fine of 188.2 million rupees, but its registration with Indian authorities could boost future adoption. Other South and Central Asian countries, such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, also ranked high in the global crypto adoption index.
Indonesia, despite banning cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, saw substantial digital asset investments, with $157.1 billion in inflows over the past year. The report highlighted a strong correlation between high decentralised transaction volumes and countries with lower purchasing power.
According to Chainalysis’ latest report, there was an unprecedented surge in cyberattacks by North Korea-affiliated hackers on numerous cryptocurrency platforms in 2023. The data from the time period 2016 to 2023 revealed that North Korea targeted and breached 20 cryptocurrency platforms last year. This marked the highest number of attacks for the country within that time frame.
Touted as the world’s most prolific cyber-thief, these cyberattacks conducted by North Korea-affiliated hackers have resulted in the theft of over $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency assets in the past year alone, a figure lower than its record of $1.7 billion stolen in 2022.
It has been alleged that hackers affiliated with North Korea stole cryptocurrency totaling hundreds of millions, to finance their nuclear weapons programs. Since conducting its initial nuclear test in 2006, North Korea has faced multiple United Nations sanctions aimed at restricting the regime’s financial resources necessary for sustaining its nuclear programs.
Chainalysis is the company for blockchain analysis that provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies and largest financial, and cybersecurity companies in over 70 countries
Private US company Chainalysis is a leading company in collecting and analyzing data used on cryptocurrency blockchains. In its annual report on cryptocurrency-related crime, they point out that illicit cryptocurrency volumes reach all-time highs amid a surge in sanctions and hacking.
‘Overall, the share of all cryptocurrency activity associated with illicit activity has risen for the first time since 2019, from 0.12% in 2021 to 0.24% in 2022.’ The company assesses that an equivalent of $20.6B is used for illicit activities.
A big part of that sum comes from the offenses related to the economic sanctions on Russia. This shows that a strict regime of sanctions is efficiently imposed on cryptocurrency exchanges, by the US department of the treasury, and international financial institutions. The report describes methods that are used for money laundering and fund transfers. As a key takeaway, Chainalisys points out that the impact of crypto sanctions depends on the jurisdiction and technical constraints.
Ransomware crypto payments
The report shows a decline in ransomware from 2021. Chainalisys claims that ransomware victims increasingly refuse to pay the ransom money hence pushing the criminals out of this scheme. The report is stating that “meaningful disruptions against ransomware actor groups are driving lower than expected successful extortion attempts” In 2021, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued an advisory document about the risk of ‘sanction crimes’ that can rise from ransomware payments. OFAC advises all US companies to report ransomware to the FBI prior to any action. This is also considered to be one of the factors for the drop in ransomware payments. In addition, ransomware lifespan is significantly shorter. From 470 days in 2019, it is down to 70 days in 2022.
Money laundering
The report is stating a rise in money laundering activities from $14.2B in 2021 to $23.8B in 2022. The report is stating ‘underground money laundering services’ are a growing concern. Such groups use private channels on messaging apps to set and organise private transactions that are hard to track.
Cryptocurrency scams
Cryptocurrency scams and the use of cryptocurrency on darknet markets are on the decline compared to previous years.
