India Tops Global Crypto Adoption, Bitcoin Ownership Breakdown, SEC’s Deregulation Pivot (#223 – 07 Sept 2025)

1. India Leads Global Crypto Adoption

In what countries are we seeing increased crypto adoption? And which countries top the list?

The annual Chainalysis report is always very interesting for some insights on this topic. (FD: Chainalysis is a former sponsor of my educational content).

Here are my three interesting (and perhaps surprising!) takeaways from this year’s report.

First, India tops the list for global crypto adoption. 

It is interesting that India tops the list without even having a clear regulatory framework in place, very high and complicated taxes on crypto and a relatively unfriendly approach to crypto from policy makers (although this has started to change post the U.S. and Pakistan pivots).

Asia actually emerged as the fastest-growing region with a 69% year-over-year increase in value received and total crypto transaction volume in the region growing from $1.4 trillion to $2.4 trillion.

Second, whilst stablecoin adoption is growing quickly with USDT alone processing over $1 trillion per month on average last year, it’s Bitcoin and not stable coins that are the main asset for fiat inflows with Bitcoin accounting for over $4.6 trillion in fiat inflows in the past year. 

This somewhat goes against the narrative that stable coins have been the “killer app” for crypto, at least for fiat inflows. It’s also important to understand that, geographically, the United States remains the world’s largest fiat on-ramp, with over $4.2 trillion in total volume — more than four times the next-highest country, South Korea with over $1 trillion. This is likely due to new regulatory clarity in the U.S. and the availability of regulated fiat on-ramps..

Third, crypto adoption is growing across income levels: high, upper-middle, and lower-middle. This goes also against the narrative stating that it was lower income folks using emerging markets for remittances and high income residents in developed countries as a hedge against fiat money. A very positive sign that crypto adoption is truly becoming global and growing across income brackets.

The report is available here for those interested.

You are a financial advisor and want to learn more about Bitcoin?

Check out my chapter from the CoinShares 'Digital Assets: the Advisors’ Brief' series that covers all of the essentials from the history of money and how Bitcoin works, to the role Bitcoin will play in the future of finance.

And all of this in less than 10 minutes!

Watch it here: https://coinshares.com/insights/advisors-brief/

2. 2/3 of Bitcoin is Owned by Individuals, but Institutional Ownership is Growing

A recent report tried to break down Bitcoin ownership.

The data suggest that individuals hold about 65.9% of BTC (13.83 million coins).

Funds and ETFs control about 7.8% of supply; businesses hold 6.2% and governments control 1.5%.

By way of comparison, the percentage of individual Bitcoin ownership (and ETF ownership) is significantly higher than for gold.

Physical gold ownership is the following (according to the World Gold Council): Individuals (mainly jewelry) 46%, central bank reserves 17%, bars and coins (ownership unspecified) 21%, industrial applications and holdings by financial institutions - 21%, and physically backed gold ETFs 2%

It is likely that the percentage of Bitcoin held by central banks will increase over the coming years.

To put things in perspective, Bitcoin with a total market cap of around 2 trillion dollars has still only 1/10 of the market of gold at almost 20 trillion dollars.

What impact the entrance of such new players (not if but when they come) will have on the price of Bitcoin remains to be seen.

Join My WhatsApp Community

Interested in getting daily curated crypto news updates and hearing my point of view on significant developments?

You can join my WhatsApp Announcement Group community here.

3. SEC Issues Deregulation Agenda for Crypto

The SEC issued its Spring 2025 agenda with its list of regulatory and deregulatory actions.

Not surprisingly a number of them target the crypto industry.

For example, the SEC is considering recommending new rules relating to the offer and sale of crypto assets, including certain exemptions and safe harbors and clarifications on the regulatory framework with the goal to provide greater certainty to the market.

In addition, the SEC wants to make amendments to Broker-Dealer Financial Responsibility and Recordkeeping and Reporting Rules with regards to crypto assets.

This is not a surprise and was expected as part of the complete 180 of the SEC. The winners here will be the crypto firms that will be able to set-up and operate in the U.S. more easily.

However, like in many other things in life, the devil is in the details so that remains to be seen.

Enjoyed this content? Make sure to subscribe or share it with a friend! A new Future of Money newsletter will be in your inbox each week!

See you all next week!!

Henri Arslanian

*Please note that this newsletter reflects Henri’s personal views and not those of any organisation he is involved with. This newsletter is for educational purposes only, and none of its content should be construed as investment or financial advice of any kind.