As of March 13, Bitcoin was up 65.4 per cent. AFP/VNA Photo

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam was the third largest cryptocurrency gainer in the world in 2023, only after the US and UK, with nearly US$1.2 billion, according to US blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis.

It was one of five Asian markets in the top ten countries for cryptocurrency gains last year, alongside China, Indonesia, India and the Republic of Korea.

“We can see several upper- and middle-income countries whose residents appear to have achieved outsized gains. Việt Nam, China, Indonesia, and India, for example, all hit over $1 billion in estimated gains,” it wrote in its “2023 Cryptocurrency Gains by Country” report released last week.

In the report, Chainalysis estimated that worldwide crypto investors achieved total gains of $37.6 billion last year.

While this total is much smaller than the $159.7 billion made during the 2021 bull market, it represents a significant recovery from 2022, which saw estimated losses of $127.1 billion.

Interestingly, the total gains estimate for 2023 was lower than that of 2021, despite crypto asset prices growing at similar rates in both years.

“One possible explanation for this could be that investors in 2023 were less likely to convert crypto assets into cash under the expectation that prices would rise even higher given that they didn’t surpass previous all-time highs at any point in 2023, unlike in 2021,” it commented.

The US led the way in cryptocurrency gains by a wide margin in 2023 at an estimated $9.36 billion. It was followed by the UK, with $1.39 billion.

China came in fourth with $1.15 billion, although cryptocurrency trading and mining activities have been banned in that country since 2021.

In Southeast Asia, in addition to Việt Nam, Indonesia ranked fifth with $1.06 billion, the Philippines 20th with $0.5 billion, and Thailand 28th $330,000.

According to Chainalysis, the positive trends of 2023 have carried over into 2024, with notable crypto assets like Bitcoin achieving all-time highs in the wake of Bitcoin ETF approvals and increased institutional adoption.

“If these trends continue, we may see gains more in line with those we saw in 2021. As of March 13, Bitcoin was up 65.4 per cent and Ether is up 70.2 per cent in 2024,” it said.

For the ranking, Chainalysis used on-chain data to estimate investors’ cryptocurrency gains based on movements of crypto assets in and out of services where they can be on or off-ramped into fiat currency. — VNS