- 26% of nations have more investors in Ethereum than Bitcoin, apart from the USA.
- Argentina is the most significant Bitcoin Maxi, with 73% of cryptocurrency investors owning the currency. This is likely due to the country’s high inflation rate.
- In the US, the meme craze is most widespread, with more American crypto investors owning Dogecoin than any other nation.
- Japan is the most hopeful about Solana replacing Ethereum as the King of DeFi.
Overview
Once upon a time, Bitcoin was the only crypto in the world. But today, there are thousands of digital assets that can be used for a variety of purposes. Some of them are created to compete with Bitcoin, while others, like Dogecoin, have taken the world by storm. Ethereum is the leader in the DeFi sector, but Solana has made some progress in the last year.
We were interested to find out which coins were the most popular in different countries, so we conducted an analysis. The study focuses on two major cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as Dogecoin, Solana, and XRP. The data was taken from a survey by finder.com of 27 countries and weighted using Google’s Interactive ranking process, which reflects the distributions of each nation’s population.
Flippening
Flippening is a term coined by crypto enthusiasts who expect Ethereum to overtake Bitcoin as the most valuable cryptocurrency, measured by market capitalization. Currently, Ethereum is worth $362 billion, which is less than half of Bitcoin’s $764 billion market cap.
Nevertheless, seven out of the twenty-seven nations surveyed believe that Flippening is possible, as more investors are available in these countries. Ethereum is more popular than Bitcoin in all of these countries, except the USA. Here, 31.7% of crypto investors own Vitalik Buterin’s brainchild, compared to 22.8% who hold Satoshi’s brainchild.
It’s worth noting that all the coins have different levels of popularity. If you click on the map icon in the legend below, you can visually sort the holdings of each country.
Argentines are Bitcoin Maxis
As the chart below shows, Argentines are the biggest Bitcoin Maxis, with 72.7% of investors owning the top crypto. Ethereum is the second most-favored coin, with only 14% of investors having it in their portfolio.
This is likely due to the country’s economic struggles and its inflation rate, which has been estimated to be as high as 4,000% in 2020. With the Argentinian peso losing value, many citizens have turned to cryptocurrencies as a safe haven for their savings.
This is an impressive feat given the current inflationary crisis in Argentina. With an average of -55.1% year-on-year, many Argentines have been turning to Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation.
On-chain activity also points to Bitcoin being the dominant coin. Around 850,000 people are active on Bitcoin addresses worldwide, while 600,000 are active on Ethereum addresses. However, the gap is slowly closing, as evidenced by the chart below.
Address activity around the world for Bitcoin and Ethereum. Data via InToTheBlock
Singapore is the country with the highest difference between ETH and BTC ownership, with 43.5% of crypto investors owning Ethereum compared to 28.4% who own Bitcoin. This 15.1% difference is the biggest of any nation. The US also favors Ethereum, with 31.7% of crypto investors owning it, compared to 22.8% who have Bitcoin.
Apart from Bitcoin and Ethereum, other coins have also been gaining traction. Dogecoin is the most popular altcoin, with 12 out of 27 countries having more DOGE investors than any other altcoin. XRP was the second-most widely held crypto in 9 of the 27 countries, and Solana came in third with 6 other countries ranking it as their top altcoin.
In the US, Dogecoin has seen a surge in popularity, with many investors hoping that it will reach the $1 mark. While this remains to be seen, the increasing interest in alternative coins is a positive sign for the industry.