Russia lags behind Ukraine in cryptocurrency adoption index
According to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Ukraine is far ahead of Russia in the number of cryptocurrency users.
The organization’s report indicates that, as of mid-2023, approximately 12% of Ukrainians and 7% of Russians used digital assets. Ukraine ranked second globally in this indicator, behind the United States, where approximately 17% of the population uses virtual currencies. Russia tied for third place with Turkey, which has a similar level of cryptocurrency usage.
Percentage of residents using digital assets
EBRD employees claim that from July 2023 to July 2024, Ukrainians conducted transactions in digital assets worth an astonishing $106 billion. Furthermore, they allegedly spent $882 million on Bitcoin. The lion’s share of these transactions was accounted for by Ukrainian institutional and professional traders.
Nevertheless, Ukraine and Russia rank alongside each other in the cryptocurrency adoption index, which measures the number of users of various digital asset-related services, holding sixth and seventh places, respectively. The top three countries are India, Nigeria, and Indonesia.
Ranking of countries by cryptocurrency adoption index
The relatively high popularity of cryptocurrency services in Russia and Ukraine is attributed to the armed conflict between the countries, which has resulted in the decline in accessibility of traditional financial services for various reasons.
