European Crypto investors Prefer Defi: Bank of Spain

18

The Bank of Spain published a report on April 26, last year describing how Spaniards and Europeans use cryptocurrencies.

The published report explains that Europeans prefer decentralised services and  crypto assets that are not backed such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). The volume of cryptocurrency transactions in the European region of the Central Bank of Spain reached a rapid rate of about 845 billion euros last year thus surpassing the United States.

“Last year, Europe had about 845 billion euros in cryptocurrency assets (4.9% of GDP, 0.9% of total financial assets), 25% of the total world and ahead of North America.”

As per report, Europeans are showing more interest in using unbacked cryptocurrencies, with 60% of total transactions last year being in BTC and ETH. While backed cryptocurrencies stood at 25%, while total interest in Altcoins, excluding ETH, went up by 15%.

European Crypto investors Prefer Defi: Bank of Spain 1
Cryptocurrency transactions in Spain and the rest of Europe. Source: Central Bank of Spain

While on the other hand, reports also suggest that 64% of Spaniards prefer to use decentralised services (no intermediary required) to handle their transactions. By comparison, in other parts of Europe, the average usage of these similar services is 53%.

That is, while centralised exchanges such as Binance or Bit2me are booming in Europe, the legal context encourages citizens to look for alternatives to trade and commerce. While Uniswap, Pancakeswap, Sushiswap and other similar services will fill that gap.

While it seems like criminals do not really exist in cryptocurrency. According to the report, only 1% of cryptocurrency transactions between July 2020 and June 2021 involved illegal activities such as theft, scams and fraud.

France ranks first in Europe in terms of transaction volume, followed by Germany, the Netherlands and Spain in second, third and fourth place as per the report.

In addition, re-elected President of France Emmanuel Macron is one of the Bitcoin supportive presidents in Europe. In an interview with local media, he talked about creating a European metaverse that could control the growth of cryptocurrencies and their development without affecting or slowing them down.

“Building the European metaverse means building, promoting and mastering” our cultural and creative content. Thanks to its applications in music, concerts, art shows, etc., metaverse has great potential in culture and entertainment.

Therefore, France could become a leader in European cryptocurrency  if Macron fulfills its promises to set up a legal framework to stimulate the crypto industry and promote innovations in the WEB3 region.

Read also: Central Bank of Cuba will issue an experimental Crypto license