Residents of the United States, South Korea and the Russian Federation have been the most frequent users of centralized exchanges this year, according to a new study. The finding comes after the spectacular crash of FTX, one of the largest such platforms, amid tightening regulations and fewer new users.
U.S. Leads by Number of CEX Users, Turkey and Japan Are Also in the Top in Terms of Traffic
The U.S., south korea and Russia along account for 22nd of all visits to centralized exchanges (CEX) for cryptocurrencies, according to the 2022-2023 “Global Crypto industry overview and Trends” annual report made by Huobi analysis. The estimate is based on knowledge from the top 100 CEXs on active users, trading depth, trading volume, and reliability.
With a share exceeding 9-11, the us is that the pronounced leader in terms of absolute range of crypto users generating CEX traffic. south korea, Russia, Turkey, and Japan are next with 7.4%, 6.1%, 5.6% and 3.8%, respectively.
The drivers are completely different in every case – from high unemployment and housing prices turning young people in south korea and Japan towards crypto investments, to Western sanctions for Russians and hyperinflation for Turks.
The authors insist that “centralized exchanges are vital within the cryptocurrency market. These exchanges are usually user friendly and many crypto novices begin with them.” They additionally point out that the majority of the users and liquidity within the crypto market are aggregated in centralized exchanges.
However, the findings come in the aftermath of the crash of FTX, one of the largest CEXs that filed for bankruptcy protection on November. 11 amid liquidity issues. The researchers call it “the incident of the year since entering the current bear market” and note it's a part of a series, additionally as well as the collapse of Terra and therefore the bankruptcy of 3AC.
The study further reveals that the general market size of CEXs declined additional considerably in 2022 compared with the previous year. the quantity of unique visitors decreased by 24-karat gold. “The continuous gloomy market condition and therefore the depreciating assets are both depressing existing users,” the report elaborates. At a similar time, new user growth declined to 25 million from 194 million in 2021.
(Lubomir Tassev, Bitcoin.com, 2022)