Germany is a crypto hotspot. According to the Coincub crypto-friendly ranking guide, this central European nation surpassed Singapore as the most crypto-friendly country worldwide.
Germany and crypto investments
There are many reasons why Germany was ranked first in recent research. Germany is second only to the United States in terms of Bitcoin nodes. The country’s approach to cryptocurrency tax is progressive, even when other advanced economies are taken into account.
Germany has a broad adoption of cryptocurrency and made a ground-breaking move to allow crypto investments to be included in its massive domestic savings industry.
Germany surpasses Singapore to the first rank in Q1, 2022. Source: Coincub
Germany’s institutional attitude toward cryptocurrency is distinctive. It allows savers to put money into cryptocurrency as a long-term investment. The country’s biggest savings institution is a group of smaller banks named Sparkasse. It is on the point of offering cryptocurrency transactions to its 50 million members, enabling them to trade and store Bitcoin. Sparkasse is also exploring the possibility of launching its crypto wallet.
Offering such a broad client base access to digital currency transactions by a well-established mainstream financial institution is a giant step forwards that puts Germany ahead of any other economy. Custody, identity, and fraud concerns have impeded several nations’ efforts to promote crypto use. Própective investors inside the bank will not be required to provide additional verification to create a crypto wallet.
The rest of the world
Singapore was previously ranked first but has already moved up to the second position. The U.S is ranked third, Australia fourth, and Switzerland fifth.
By sheer numbers, the U.S. remains a crypto powerhouse, with the most extensive amounts of nodes, crypto trading and Bitcoin ATMs. It is now ranked third. However, in the Coincub rankings, Bitcoin trade volumes and Bitcoin ATMs are weighted according to relative metrics such as GDP or population size to provide a more trustworthy and balanced picture.
Over three months since Coincub.com published its last report, it’s been a dramatic period. Naturally, bitcoin fell to just under $35k in January before returning to $47k in March.
Inflation, as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, are destabilising global markets.
Other emerging nations
Singapore is still regarded as a major economic powerhouse and favoured by most crypto investors. And yet – the government has prohibited Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) from promoting bitcoin outside of their websites. Due to new limits on Bitcoin ATMs, the nation has lost its top rank.
Other noteworthy developments have occurred in the three months since the last report. Hong Kong progressed to sixth place from 35th last year. This is due to an increase in the number of crypto-related courses offered at prestigious institutions. Hong Kong also has a sizable number of Bitcoin nodes and is home to many blockchain-related firms.
The Netherlands, France, and Spain have all risen from the ranks. This is due to the proliferation of blockchain start-ups, favourable legislation, and the significant volumes of crypto transactions.
Switzerland improved eight places. The independent Canton of Lugano inside Switzerland, an Italian-speaking region, now acknowledges Bitcoin as legal tender. El Salvador is the first nation in the world to have legalised Bitcoin.
Romania and Japan have also worked their way up the chart. China remains stuck at the bottom owing to the prohibition on cryptocurrency trade and mining there.
Cryptocurrency worldwide
Sergiu Hamza, Coincub’s CEO, said that they wanted to provide the most realistic account of cryptocurrency globally, and as such, their ranking is constantly updated. In Q1 2022, they updated their scoring methodology to reflect some categories’ significance more accurately and included new ones such as Talent, Fraud, and ICOs. He also emphasised that Coincub would go beyond legislation or pure statistics to define a country’s crypto friendliness or maturity as events unfold.
