Vietnam and Thailand: A New Hot Spot for Crypto Trading in ASEAN
Each country logs over $100 billion in transactions yearly, topping Singapore. Even financial hub Singapore, battling new regulations to manage the embryonic industry, has surpassed Vietnam and Thailand as the top cryptocurrency trading centers among the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries
The Highlights:
- Thailand and Vietnam have become the top crypto trading hubs among the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, beating even financial center Singapore.
- Thailand and Vietnam saw high traffic to marketplaces for non-fungible tokens that give their owners the deeds to items like virtual art pieces on the blockchain, which are decentralized digital ledgers that keep the cryptocurrency industry humming.
- According to accountancy firm KPMG, corporate backers also appear to be losing appetite for investing in digital token players. KPMG figures showed that cryptocurrency funding in Singapore dipped by more than half its value in a report it issued earlier this month.
According to the results of blockchain data platform Chainalysis published on Wednesday, from July 2021 to June 2022, the two ASEAN nations officially recorded over $100 billion each in crypto buying and selling values.
"Users in lower-middle and upper-middle income countries often rely on cryptocurrency to send remittances, preserve their savings in times of fiat currency volatility," "These countries also tend to lean on bitcoin and stablecoins more than other countries." Chainalysis said.
Based on the data provider, markets for non-fungible tokens, which grant their owners the title to virtual works of art on blockchain, autonomous digital accounting records that power the cryptocurrency sector, experienced tremendous traffic in Thailand and Vietnam.
Over the course of the year, crypto transactions worth $112.6 billion were reported in Vietnam and $135.9 billion in Thailand. The city-financial state's authority is now drafting regulations to strengthen monitoring over retail trading of such tokens, which it disapproves of; therefore, Singapore only generated $100.3 billion.
The stablecoin tokens lost value concerning the dollar to which they were pegged, devaluing other cryptocurrencies and causing a problem for various organizations that deal in digital assets. The decline in the value of these digital currencies paved the way for increased ASEAN token skepticism.
KPMG, an accounting firm, claims that corporate supporters' interest in investing in players that use digital tokens appears to be waning. In a survey released earlier this month, KPMG statistics revealed that cryptocurrency funding in Singapore had lost more than half its value.
From $1.3 billion in the second half of last year, cryptocurrency investment inflows dropped to $539.1 million in the first half of 2022. With seven departure or merger agreements signed, KPMG stated that crypto deals were also less in scale and that the industry was consolidating.
Adapted from Nikkei ASEAN