On-chain cryptocurrency value received at centralized exchanges, weighted by purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita

The goal of this sub-index is to rank each country by total cryptocurrency activity occurring on centralized crypto exchanges, and weight the rankings to favor countries where that amount is more significant based on the income of the average person in that country. We calculate this by estimating the total cryptocurrency received on-chain by users of centralized services in each country, and weighting that value based on PPP per capita, which is a measure of the country’s income per resident. The higher the ratio of on-chain value received to PPP per capita, the higher the ranking. In other words, if two countries received equal amounts of cryptocurrency at centralized services, the country with lower PPP per capita would rank ahead.

On-chain retail value received at centralized exchanges, weighted by PPP per capita

The goal of this metric is to measure the activity of non-professional, individual cryptocurrency users at centralized services, based on how much cryptocurrency they’re transacting compared to the purchasing power of the average person. We do this by measuring the amount of cryptocurrency received at centralized services by users in each country, similar to the above, but only counting value received in retail-sized transactions, which we designate as transactions under $10,000 USD worth of cryptocurrency. We then rank each country according to this metric but weight it to favor countries with a lower PPP per capita.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange trade volume, weighted by PPP per capita and number of internet users

P2P trade volume makes up a significant percentage of all cryptocurrency activity in emerging markets. For this sub-index, we rank countries by their P2P trade volume and weight it to favor countries with lower PPP per capita and fewer internet users, the goal being to highlight countries where more residents are putting a larger share of their overall income and wealth into P2P cryptocurrency transactions.

On-chain cryptocurrency value received from DeFi protocols, weighted by PPP per capita

DeFi (decentralized finance) is the cutting edge of cryptocurrency. Given the sector’s importance to innovation in crypto, we want our adoption index to highlight countries where users are conducting a disproportionately high share of their financial activity using DeFi protocols. For this sub-index, we rank countries by their DeFi transaction volume, and weight the rankings to favor countries with lower PPP per capita.

On-chain retail value received from DeFi protocols, weighted by PPP per capita

We want our index to highlight the DeFi activity of non-professional, individual cryptocurrency users, just as we do for centralized services. So, this sub-index ranks each country by DeFi transaction volume carried out in retail-sized transfers, weighted to favor countries with lower PPP per capita.

The 2023 Global Crypto