Singapore has strengthened its position as Asia's leading crypto hub, increasing its digital asset transaction volume by 55.4% over the year – to $284 billion, according to data from Chainalysis analysts. The overall crypto market volume in Central, Southeast Asia, and Oceania decreased by 6.8%. Nevertheless, key markets showed growth in institutional activity and the practical use of virtual coins. The main driver of Singapore's growth was institutional platforms: the volume of transactions through market makers, brokers, and OTC services grew by 94% – to $60 billion.
Australia ranked second in the region with a volume of $173.1 billion, while the overall transaction volume decreased by 5.6%. However, institutional inflow increased by 33.3%, nearly reaching $40 billion, driven by the launch of crypto ETFs and the development of regulatory norms. India remained in third place with a volume of $135 billion, despite a 14.7% decline. The country is a regional leader in fund inflows to centralized exchanges with $88.4 billion. However, the share of local platforms fell below 1% as users switched to foreign exchanges due to a 1% transaction tax introduced in 2022.
Analysts also noted increased demand for cross-border transfers in stablecoins, where the volume of international transfers on average is 3.2 times higher than domestic ones in the region, and in Malaysia – almost 30 times. In the Philippines, stablecoins account for 5% to 10% of all private remittances from abroad. The Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam accounted for 14.4% of the global volume of small P2P transfers (up to $10,000), with the average transaction size being $618 compared to $1,210 in the rest of the world. Analysts noted that the region is transitioning from speculative trading to real infrastructure, including asset tokenization, cross-border payments, and corporate capital management.
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