Ukrainian Traders Surpassed Russians in Growth for Cryptocurrency Transaction Volume For First Time by 4 times
According to Huobi Global, the volume of cryptocurrency transactions of Ukrainian users doubled in the second quarter of 2021, with a six month growth of 153%. For the first time since the exchange operation, Ukraine has surpassed Russia in terms of the growth in trading volume for cryptocurrencies, becoming the growth leader in trading activities not only in the CIS, but across the world.
The recent report released by the analytics agency Chainalysis, on the profits received from the sale of BTC in 2020, reveals Ukrainian traders were ranked top ten along with traders from the USA, China, Japan, Great Britain and several other countries. The report indicates that by country, Ukrainian traders share ninth place with South Korea and the Netherlands, realizing total investment gains at $400 million last year.
The figures, although impressive, do not assess the true growth rates of cryptocurrency trading in a particular country, as well as the behavioral factors of traders. User trends require analysis of additional dynamic data such as trading volumes, the number of new users, and the average trading size.
Huobi Global has analyzed the data on traders’ behavior for the 10 countries with the highest transactions over the past six months to assess whether the total trading volume of transactions matches the popularization of cryptocurrencies and the activities of crypto users. The research took into account all transactions made with bitcoin.
Ukraine turned out to be the absolute leader in terms of growth in the volume of bitcoin transactions, with a quarter over quarter growth of 109%, while the growth rate for the past six months was 153%. At the same time, among the leading countries in terms of the total volume of bitcoin transactions, Singapore, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, and Switzerland showed negative growth dynamics with indicators of 22%, 13%, 13% and 55% respectively, while in Israel, which took the fifth place in the ranking, the volume of BTC transactions increased by 24%.
For the first time ever, Ukraine surpassed Russia in terms of the growth in BTC transaction volume and user’s average transaction size. The latest statistics show that on average, a Ukrainian user spends about $3,194 to buy cryptocurrency, while in Russia this figure is twice as small — approximately $1,330. This suggests that Ukrainians are trading cryptocurrencies more actively than Russians and prefer to allocate a greater share for bitcoin investments in their portfolios.
Recently, the popularization of digital money in the country has reached an unprecedented pace. Ukraine has been featured in many cryptocurrency metrics reports over the past six months.
If we take the size of the population of the countries from the Chainalysis rating into account, it turns out that the real indicators of the use of cryptocurrency among Ukrainian traders are even higher. Countries ranked higher than Ukraine are more densely populated: the population of South Korea is 56 million, France — 65 million, Germany — 83 million, Russia — 146 million, etc, while Ukraine has only 44 million. This suggests that the involvement and activity of Ukrainian citizens in the cryptocurrency market is noticeably higher than the activity of users from other countries. At the same time, Ukrainian traders are by far the most successful in the CIS, earning more than Russians.
“The number of active users from Ukraine is approximately half of those from Russia. Given the larger number of people living in the Russian Federation, this clearly shows that the population of Ukraine is more involved in the world of cryptocurrencies than the Russians, and Ukrainian traders earn more than traders from other CIS countries,” said Alfan Gogus, Regional General Manager of Huobi Global in Russia, Ukraine and Turkey. “Comparing the number of people and the number of users living in the countries, we see that Ukraine is number one not only in the CIS, but also in Europe, second only to the crypto-advanced Netherlands, where 17 million people live.”
According to Alfan Gogus, the financial success of traders from Ukraine in 2020 is the result of healthy initiatives, educational activities and the government’s approach to cryptocurrency regulations. The proactive role of the cryptocurrency community, which strives to make Ukraine the blockchain center of Europe, shouldn’t be underestimated either. Recently, the public union “Virtual Assets of Ukraine’’ and the inter-factional association of deputies, Blockchain4Ukraine, sent letters to the institutional bodies of the European Union, offering cooperation to create a unified infrastructure of blockchain services.
Crypto initiatives of blockchain enthusiasts are not limited to cooperation with EU countries, as Ukraine intends to increase profits and its importance in the world of cryptocurrencies by placing significant mining capacities on its territory. For example, a new bitcoin mining farm will soon open near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. Cooperation on the project was signed last year with a private Swiss company, H2, which is investing $700 million in the enterprise. Another farm is being built near the Rivne NPP in partnership with the Dutch blockchain company, Bitfury. The location near nuclear power plants is ideal for mining farms that consume large amounts of electricity. Such a breakthrough is also made possible by appropriate regulation.
“The Western approach to the regulation of cryptocurrencies and the large democratization of financial institutions, in comparison with Russia, allows Ukraine and its citizens to receive significant profits today. In turn, we at Huobi Global work 24/7 to provide traders and investors from Ukraine with the best user experience,” cited Alfan Gogus.
