India's cryptocurrency market grew 641% last year: Report

India's share of activity on DeFi platforms is 59 percent, higher than that of Pakistan (33 percent) and Vietnam (47 percent). (Representative image: Reuters)

India's cryptocurrency market expanded 641 percent in the past year, driving growth of digital currencies in central and Southern Asia, according to a report by Chainalaysis.

The cryptocurrency market in Pakistan expanded by 711 percent last year, the report added. Three countries from the Central & Southern Asia and Oceania (CSAO) region are part of Chainalysis' Global Crypto Adoption Index - Vietnam at number one, India at two, and Pakistan at three.

"Interesting differences also emerge when we look at the breakdown of transaction value by currency. For instance, we see that Ethereum and wETH make up a bigger share of Indian activity than of Vietnamese or Pakistani activity," the study said.

India's share of activity on DeFi platforms is 59 percent, higher than that of Pakistan (33 percent) and Vietnam (47 percent).

"Large institutional-sized transfers above $10 million worth of cryptocurrency represent 42 percent of transactions sent from India-based addresses, versus 28 percent for Pakistan and 29 percent for Vietnam. Those numbers suggest that India's cryptocurrency investors are part of larger, more sophisticated organisations," the report added.

The CSAO region is the fourth largest cryptocurrency market in the study by Chainalysis, which looked at cryptocurrency transactions between July 2020 and June 2021. CSAO is also one of the fastest-growing regions in the report.

Transaction activity in CSAO grew by 706 percent compared to last year in terms of raw value, and its share of global cryptocurrency activity grew by 2 percent.