CRYPTOCURRENCY adoption is on the rise in Malaysia with cryptocurrency ownership in the country being well above the global average of 15.5%, thus ranking it seventh out of the 27 countries included in the Finder’s latest Cryptocurrency Adoption Index.
The crypto ownership rate in Malaysia is 19.9% as of end-December 2021, ahead of Russia (19.6%) and Ghana (17.3%).
Vietnam has the highest rate of cryptocurrency ownership in the world with 28.6% of its online population saying they own a form of cryptocurrency, followed by India (23.4%) and Australia (22.9%).
At the other end of the spectrum is Japan where only 5.8% of the online population surveyed say they own any cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin is Malaysia’s most popular cryptocurrency with 34.9% of Malaysian crypto owners owning the coin. The second most popular coin is Ripple at 23.1% while Ethereum in third at 20.5%.
According to cryptocurrency editor at Finder.com Keegan Francis, crypto awareness is quite high among Malaysians compared to their global counterparts.
“It’s not surprising crypto adoption is on the rise in Malaysia given general awareness is quite high with 63% of Malaysian adults knowing what cryptocurrency is,” he pointed out.
“61% of Malaysian adults think that cryptocurrency is a good investment, well above the global average of 43% and ahead of Vietnam (59%), Hong Kong (42%) and Singapore (37%).”
In Malaysia, those aged 18-34 dominate crypto ownership at 54.2% with those in the 35-54 age group being the next most likely group to own crypto at 26.7%. Those aged 55+ come in last with 19%.
Another fascinating fact about Malaysian cryptocurrency ownership is that women are roughly 1.1 times as likely as men to own cryptocurrency – among crypto owners, 53% are women compared to 47% who are men.
This makes Malaysia the second lowest male-dominated crypto market of the countries surveyed. Globally, men are on average 1.5 times more likely to hold crypto than women.
Interestingly, nine out of the 10 most crypto-positive countries have a below-average Corruption Perceptions Index score with Malaysia being the only country in the top 10 with an above-average Corruption Perceptions Index score (at 51). – Jan 17, 2022
