MENA region – world’s fastest crypto adopter

October 8, 2022

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is the fastest growing cryptocurrencies market in the world.

Key facts

The 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index released by the blockchain researcher Chainalysis revealed that the Middle East and the North Africa (MENA) region witnessed 48 per cent increase in the volume of cryptocurrency received – the highest in the world.
Though MENA region is one of the smallest cryptocurrency markets in the world, it received cryptocurrency worth 566 billion between July 2021 and June 2022.
After MENA, Latin America witnessed the second biggest cryptocurrency growth in the world during the same period. It recorded a 40 per cent increase.
It was followed by North America at 36 per cent growth and Central Asia, Southern Asia and Oceania at 35 per cent growth.
The three MENA countries – Turkey, Egypt and Morocco – were among the top 30 in the index.
There is a spike in the volume of cryptocurrencies in these countries because of increased savings and remittance payments.
Turkey currently tops the MENA countries by having highest value of cryptocurrencies received. By the end of June 2022, it had received 192 billion worth of cryptocurrencies. However, it only witnessed a 10.5 per cent year-on-year growth.
According to the report, Saudi Arabia is the third largest crypto market in MENA region, and the United Arab Emirates stands at fifth position.
This is mainly attributed to young, tech-savvy early adopters having large amount of disposable incomes.
Increasing inflation is also playing a major role in the increased adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Its adoption is attractive to institutional investors because of the uncertain economic situation, currency devaluation and inflation.
Afghanistan, which held the 20^th spot in 2021, fell to bottom most spot in the index after Taliban banned cryptocurrencies, which were equated by the extremist group to gambling that goes against the Islamist ideologies.