Key Insights
From January to July 2025, five countries—India, the United States, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Brazil—led the globe in terms of cryptocurrency adoption. The United States experienced a significant increase in crypto activity, with a 50% rise in transaction volume during this timeframe compared to the same period in 2024, solidifying its position as the world’s largest cryptocurrency market in terms of transaction volume. Additionally, South Asia emerged as the fastest-growing region for cryptocurrency adoption in 2025, while North Africa also saw an uptick in crypto engagement, even in the face of prohibitive regulations in several nations.
Stablecoins have become a major factor in the crypto space, accounting for 30% of all on-chain transaction volume. In August 2025, stablecoin activity reached an unprecedented annual volume exceeding $4 trillion, marking an 83% increase from the same period in the previous year. Between 2024 and 2025, sanctions contributed to a rise in illicit volume for non-stablecoin digital assets, whereas stablecoin-related illicit activity declined by 60%, suggesting a potential shift in the use of stablecoins for evading sanctions.
Ranking Methodology
TRM’s Country Crypto Adoption Index 2025 ranks digital asset adoption based on the economic size of each country. The index combines proprietary on-chain transaction data with an analysis of web traffic patterns, adjusting for global economic conditions to provide a clearer picture of crypto adoption.
This year’s methodology builds on previous approaches from 2024, refining how on-chain activity is assessed. The previous focus on decentralized finance (DeFi) flows, which provided insights into early adoption trends, has been broadened. As the crypto ecosystem has developed, the nature of transactions has diversified, with a growing presence of regulated service providers and institutional users influencing transaction behaviors. This report now emphasizes activity from organized or regulated services such as exchanges, custodians, and peer-to-peer marketplaces, while excluding flows primarily linked to open-ended DeFi experiments. This adjustment offers a more comprehensive view of how users are interacting with institutions within the crypto ecosystem.
Analyzing On-Chain Volumes
To understand the on-chain volumes of prominent virtual asset service providers (VASPs) like exchanges, TRM limits its analysis to assets with dependable pricing information. Since on-chain transactions do not typically reveal user locations, web traffic serves as a substitute to estimate geographic distribution. The proportion of visits to a VASP from each country is applied to that provider’s incoming transaction volume, yielding an approximation of activity across different regions.
Adjusting for Economic Factors
Raw transaction volumes can give a misleading impression of crypto adoption in wealthier economies. To rectify this, each country’s attributed transaction volumes are adjusted according to its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita based on purchasing power parity (PPP). This adjustment recognizes that similar levels of crypto activity can have varying significance depending on local economic conditions. For instance, a dollar of crypto volume carries more weight in a market with an average annual payment per person of $100 than in one where that figure is $10,000. This analysis ultimately combines on-chain volumes, web traffic data, and economic scaling into a composite score. Countries are then ranked based on this score, reflecting both the degree of activity and its importance within each economy.
Crypto Adoption Index 2025
TRM’s findings indicate a significant acceleration in retail-led crypto adoption during 2025, with retail transactions surging over 125% between January and September 2024 compared to the same period in 2025. This growth suggests that individual users are increasingly influential in the evolution of cryptocurrency, often driven by practical applications such as payments, remittances, and wealth preservation in unstable economic environments. The report also highlights the rising importance of stablecoins, which have increasingly enabled users to access fiat currencies like the US dollar.
Countries with notable crypto adoption levels in 2025 include:
1. India
2. United States
3. Pakistan
4. Philippines
5. Brazil
6. Indonesia
7. Vietnam
8. Republic of Korea
9. Japan
10. Ukraine
US Crypto Volume Surge Amid Regulatory Changes
The United States retained its second-place ranking in the index, following India, which has held the top position for three consecutive years. Research indicates that US crypto transaction volumes surged approximately 50% from January to July 2025, surpassing $1 trillion. This growth solidifies the US’s status as the largest crypto market globally, marked by a sustained trend over the past few years.
This year’s growth is notable not only for its scale but also for the circumstances surrounding it. Analysis suggests that the organic growth observed in 2023 and 2024 has been bolstered by various political, regulatory, and structural shifts. Key developments include an influx of institutional demand, with regulated products like spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) attracting nearly $15 billion in net investments during the first half of 2025.
Moreover, the changing political and regulatory landscape in the US has also contributed to this momentum. For example, President Donald Trump’s campaign was the first from a major political party to accept cryptocurrency donations, and his election in November 2024 coincided with a spike in crypto activity. TRM’s analysis revealed a 30% increase in web traffic to VASPs in the US during the six months following the election compared to the preceding period. Since taking office, President Trump has committed to establishing the US as “the crypto capital of the world,” initiating several legislative actions aimed at creating a clearer regulatory framework around digital assets.
South Asia Emerges as a Leader in Crypto Adoption
South Asia has positioned itself as the fastest-growing region for cryptocurrency adoption from January to July 2025, exhibiting an 80% rise in transaction volume compared to the same period in 2024, totaling roughly $300 billion. The performance of India (ranked #1), Pakistan (#3), and Bangladesh (#14) reveals a spectrum of motivations, market dynamics, and regulatory approaches influencing adoption across the region.
India’s leading status can be attributed to its large, youthful population exhibiting a growing interest in digital assets, bolstered by a crypto-savvy middle class and a vibrant development community. Institutional and high-net-worth investor interest in cryptocurrencies is also rising, further driving India’s crypto adoption.
In Pakistan, an increase in grassroots adoption has been enhanced by significant policy developments. In March 2025, the government launched the Pakistan Crypto Council to advance its blockchain and cryptocurrency sector, alongside plans for a dedicated regulatory body, the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA).
Conversely, while cryptocurrency remains illegal in Bangladesh, underground channels continue to facilitate its adoption. Since 2014, the central bank has issued warnings against crypto use, citing potential violations of foreign exchange regulations. Despite the lack of licensed platforms, capital controls and limited access to foreign currency have made cryptocurrencies an attractive option for many seeking alternatives to traditional finance.
North African Adoption Amid Restrictions
Several North African nations, including Egypt (#20), Morocco (#21), Algeria (#33), and Tunisia (#42), rank among the top 50 for crypto adoption despite having imposed bans or severe restrictions on cryptocurrency usage. This phenomenon illustrates that outright bans can often be counterproductive, as they may inadvertently fuel underground activities through peer-to-peer trading and over-the-counter networks. Remarkably, these countries outpace several jurisdictions with more permissive or regulated frameworks, indicating that grassroots demand for alternative financial solutions can prevail over formal prohibitions.
The Role of Stablecoins in 2025
Stablecoins are increasingly integral to global cryptocurrency adoption. TRM’s analysis reveals that stablecoins accounted for 30% of all crypto transaction volume from January to July 2025. By pegging their value to reserve assets such as fiat currencies or commodities, stablecoins provide stability in the face of market volatility, particularly in developing economies.
More than 90% of fiat-backed stablecoins are tied to the US dollar, with Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) commanding 93% of the overall stablecoin market capitalization. Regulatory advancements have also accelerated in 2025, exemplified by the US’s enactment of the GENIUS Act, Hong Kong’s Stablecoin Bill, and the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA).
Record Highs for Stablecoin Transactions
As of August 2025, stablecoin transaction volume saw its highest annual figures, rising by 83% between July 2024 and July 2025, and exceeding $4 trillion in transaction volume for the first half of 2025. Concurrently, leading stablecoins increased their market share by 52%, emphasizing their growing significance in the cryptocurrency landscape.
While TRM assesses that 99% of stablecoin transactions are legitimate, in the first quarter of 2025, stablecoins constituted 60% of illicit activity. This trend likely reflects the same appealing characteristics that make stablecoins attractive for legitimate use, such as low transaction fees, speed, and widespread accessibility on open blockchains like TRON and Ethereum.
Investment fraud emerged as the leading driver of illicit volume growth in the overall crypto space between 2024 and 2025. Notably, when stablecoin transactions are excluded, sanctions accounted for the most significant increase in illicit activity, rising by over $1 billion compared to 2024. This contrasts sharply with a $5.2 billion decrease in sanctions-related volume within stablecoins during the same timeframe, indicating a possible behavioral shift among malicious actors as enforcement and oversight measures against stablecoins intensify.
Within the stablecoin sector, extortion and blackmail activities experienced the highest relative growth, soaring by 380% year-over-year. With ongoing legislative progress in various markets, TRM anticipates that stablecoins will play an increasingly prominent role in the cryptocurrency landscape in the upcoming year.
Conclusion: A Complex Adoption Landscape Centered on Stablecoins
The findings of this year’s report highlight that cryptocurrency adoption is influenced by a myriad of factors, reflecting an evolving array of motivations shaped by local economic environments, user behaviors, and regulatory conditions. In some regions, adoption has surged in response to enhanced regulatory clarity and institutional access, while in others, it has continued to grow despite formal bans or restrictions. These divergent dynamics indicate a consistent trend: cryptocurrency is steadily integrating into the financial mainstream, with stablecoins emerging as a central component of this evolution.
As regulatory frameworks for stablecoins—and digital assets as a whole—continue to develop, TRM plans to release a forthcoming policy report examining the key factors influencing crypto policy and regulation as we approach 2026.
About TRM Labs
TRM Labs specializes in blockchain analytics solutions aimed at assisting law enforcement, national security agencies, financial institutions, and cryptocurrency businesses in detecting, investigating, and mitigating crypto-related fraud and financial crime. Their blockchain intelligence platform includes tools for tracing the origins and destinations of funds, identifying illicit activities, constructing cases, and developing a comprehensive picture of threats. Trusted by leading agencies and businesses around the globe, TRM is dedicated to fostering a safer and more secure cryptocurrency ecosystem. Based in San Francisco, CA, TRM is currently hiring across various roles including engineering, product, sales, and data science.
