The recent research performed by a crypto education
platform named a list of the most crypto-ready countries. In total, the
researchers analyzed 200 countries and territories.

 

Each country was given points of
crypto-readiness. The maximum number of points was 10.

 

Top 10 of crypto-ready countries:

 

1)   
USA (7.3)

2)   
Cyprus (6.47)

3)   
Singapore (6.3)

4)   
Hong Kong (6.27)

5)   
UK (6.06)

6)   
Ireland (6.05)

7)   
Slovenia (5.96)

8)   
Austria (5.94)

9)   
Germany (5.93)

10)
Canada (5.86)

 

So what does it exactly mean for the country to
be ready for cryptocurrencies? Well, researchers analyzed quite a few factors.
Some of the most important ones were the presence of crypto ATMs and how
accessible they are to which number of people. Also, the online interest,
especially the increasing one, played a major role in rating the countries.
Among other factors were the Government’s official stance and whether or not
cryptocurrencies can be used in local banks.

 

It’s difficult to tell for sure if this list is
completely accurate because researchers used Wikipedia as one of the sources for
information, and in academic circles, this resource doesn’t count as a reliable
one.

Number of ATMs

 

In the US, they found more than 17,400 crypto
ATMs which is about 19,000 people per one ATM. Next goes Canada with one crypto
ATM per every 26,265 citizens. Surprisingly, big countries are not the only
leaders on this list. Because the third place by the crypto ATM accessibility
is the microstate San Marino which has one ATM per a population of only 33,604
people.

 

Interestingly, this research calculated not only
the number of ATMs in correlation with the numbers of citizens but also took
into account the number of ATMs per certain areas in square miles. This
approach was taken to calculate the accessibility of these machines in
countries with, especially large populations.

 

For example, Hong Kong (China) has the biggest
number of crypto ATMs per square mile because you can run into at least one of
them every three square miles.   

 

Japan has the highest number of people per crypto
ATM as if you want to use the only one in the country you will have over 125
million other people to contend with. The total area of the city is 429 square
miles so it turns out that they have 124 crypto ATMs overall which is a huge
number for a modern city. The second and third places in this rating are small
areas of Singapore and San Marino having at least one crypto ATM per 28 and 24
sq. miles respectively.

Interest – online
searches/increase over the year

Perhaps, an interest in cryptocurrencies is a
thing that’s harder to measure since it’s a widespread interest as such. For
example, a lot of people across the world are googling something like how to buy zrx 0x
crypto but it’s hard to tell if it’s a tangible and precisely
located interest. Meaning, are these people really interested in buying crypto
or they are not going to do it in the nearest future or even the long-term
perspective.

 

The decision of the researchers was quite smart.
They sorted out Google searches per country and compared them to the population
of those countries. Finally, they wanted to see in which countries the
coefficient of the searches per 100,000 people was the highest and rank the countries
correspondingly. The timeframe of the examination was 2019 to 2021. The point
was to distinguish where the growing interest for cryptocurrencies was the
highest.

 

As a result, 33,941 searches per 100,000 people
were found in Cyprus. This is the highest value which shows that people in
Cyprus have been interested in crypto the most. Besides Cyprus, only two
countries were interested in crypto with values more than 30,000 searches per
100,000 people. Those were Singapore and Gibraltar.

 

However, the biggest increase in interest was
shown in Romania (331%), Greece (226%), and Canada (213.1%).

Government’s stance

Naturally, governmental support is one of the key
factors in the crypto-readiness of the country. Because, eventually, it all
depends on whether or not the government will allow using cryptocurrencies
within a legal framework. The researchers specified Wikipedia as a source of
information, that’s why it’s reasonable to assume that they were assessing the
so-called white zones where crypto is completely legal, grey zones where it is
not clear, and black zones where crypto is partially or entirely banned.

Can it be used in banks?

Obviously, if you can freely use cryptocurrencies
in local banks, the country can be considered crypto-ready. Researchers of the
Crypto Head study also explored this feature and included it in counting the
crypto-readiness points. However, on the main page of their website they did
not specify the algorithm and method of counting and deducting and adding
points in regards to this feature.

 

Perhaps, exchanging and holding crypto in banks
is a long future to come. Yet, some services already offer crypto savings
accounts. These accounts are different from the similar accounts in banks because
crypto has a potential for growth and therefore, you have a chance to earn more
than you would if keeping the account in dollars or stablecoins. What’s more,
such services are completely legal since they are overseen by major
international institutions that regulate financial operations. But you should
keep in mind that they don’t operate in some jurisdictions. So check if your
country is on their service list before opening an account.