Germany and the United States shared the top spot as the world’s most crypto-friendly economies in the second quarter, according to the latest quarterly global cryptocurrency rankings released by analytics company Coincub.
Germany had snatched the top spot in the first quarter driven by its unparalleled decision to allow bitcoin investments in one of its largest savings institutions, Sparkasse.
Meanwhile, the U.S. climbed to the top spot from third place in the first quarter after US President Joe Biden’s astute measures to bring cryptocurrency regulation into line across the U.S., which offer the prospect of consumer protection along with a more cohesive anti-money laundering strategy.
Countries score highly on Coincub’s ranking criteria where there are more regulations and safety to improve people’s willingness to invest rather than when markets are left completely to themselves without any checks and balances.
Germany has amongst the most well-conceived and progressive crypto legislation in the world, according to Coincub. It also has high volumes of crypto holders and bitcoin nodes. Its ratings receive a boost due to the favorable tax regime for Bitcoin investors in the country.
Coincub noted that the U.S. too is a powerful crypto economy, mostly driven by the private demand for bitcoin trading and mining, and the vast number of bitcoin nodes and ATMs across the country.
However, the U.S. is held back in the rankings due to the ‘state-by-state’ approach to legislation and regulation as well as a largely uncoordinated anti-money laundering strategy. The full implementation of the Biden measures will surely provide wider safeguards to restrict and prevent fraud.
Among the other top five crypto-friendly economies in the second quarter, Switzerland has been steadily rising up through the rankings and is at the third spot, thanks to progressive legislation and high trading volumes. The announcement to make Bitcoin the de-facto legal tender in Canton of Lugano in March also aided its rankings.
Switzerland boasts of some 1000 blockchain and virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and is also home to a significant BIS FinTech Innovation Hub. It also has an enthusiastic bitcoin population with high scores for its numbers of nodes and bitcoin ATMs.
Singapore now stands at the fourth spot, slipping down gently from the top spot in the rankings for the fourth quarter of 2021. The recent news of difficulties experienced by investors and accusations of an uneven playing field for crypto investors has played its part in the drop in rankings.
Singapore has slipped over the past two quarters partly due to its attempts to cool the market by issuing restrictions on the third-party advertising of virtual asset service providers (VASPs). However, the country is still a crypto economy powerhouse with a high number of ICOs and people holding cryptocurrencies.
Meanwhile, Australia retains its fifth place with its government and institutions continuing to have a very positive outlook on blockchain payments technology. The country also has a high number of Initial Coin Offerings and crypto exchanges and many leading universities offering blockchain and crypto educational courses.
The country has ambitions to stay ahead of the curve in distributed ledger technology and crypto payments systems in order to free itself from reliance on outside global players. Australia remains at the fifth spot simply through being overtaken rather than by any regressive crypto policies.
Coincub said in each quarter countries change direction, some improve their crypto economy, some add regulations and incentives, but some simply ban it. All of which means the quarterly ranking is always changing.
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