India tops global crypto use despite offshore exchange ban

India, the largest country by population, continues to lead the world in terms of cryptocurrency adoption despite the local ban on offshore crypto exchanges, according to Chainalysis.

After topping Chainalysis’ crypto adoption report last year, India remains the world’s largest crypto market in terms of adoption in 2024, the blockchain analysis firm reported in its fifth annual Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index issued on Sept. 11.

Among the 151 countries analyzed, India received the highest ranking in Chainalysis’ global crypto adoption index, beating countries like Nigeria, Indonesia, the United States, and Vietnam.

Chainalysis’ adoption index comprises four sub-indexes, such as onchain crypto value received by centralized exchanges (CEX) and decentralized finance (DeFi) services, including retail sub-categories for both types of services.

India’s FIU banned Binance and other offshore exchanges, but users still accessed those in 2024

In December 2023, India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), an organization under the Indian Department of Revenue, marked nine offshore exchanges as non-compliant with the country’s Anti-Money Laundering laws.

Those exchanges included major industry firms like Binance, HTX (formerly Huobi), Kraken, Gate.io, KuCoin, Bitstamp, MEXC, Bittrex and Bitfinex.

The FIU subsequently asked India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to block the websites of the non-compliant exchanges for India-based customers.

Despite the ban, the total value received by the nine blocked exchanges still accounted for a significant share of the total value received by CEXs in India, according to data gathered by Chainalysis.

For example, as of April 2024, the nine blocked exchanges accounted for nearly 40% of the total usage of CEXs in India.

According to Chainalysis’ insights, the ban on offshore exchanges in India hasn’t greatly affected their usage, as local users were still able to access them through downloaded apps or certain trading apps that were still accessible.

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Since banning the exchanges in late 2023, India’s FIU has softened its stance on the platforms mentioned above, registering KuCoin and Binance after collecting fines in May 2024.

In early September, local reports suggested that the FIU was planning to approve two additional offshore exchanges to restart operations in India.

India ranks second in the CSAO region in terms of crypto value received

In addition to ranking first in the global crypto adoption, India also ranked second in the Central, Southern Asia and Oceania (CSAO) region in terms of crypto value received.

According to Chainalysis’ findings, India received about $143 billion in crypto from July 2023 to June 2024, losing only to Indonesia, which received $157 billion.

Crypto asset inflows in CSAO totaled $750 billion over the past year, representing 16.6% of the global value received. This places the region behind only North America and Western Europe.

According to Chainalysis, crypto activity in CSAO was driven mainly by CEXs, with transfers in sizes above $10,000 representing the largest share of value received, suggesting substantial professional and institutional activity.

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