Data Reveals Potential of Asia's Web3 Market: Crypto User Base Exceeds 300 Million, Stablecoin Transaction Volume Soars to Nearly $8 Billion
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Data Reveals Potential of Asia's Web3 Market: Crypto User Base Exceeds 300 Million, Stablecoin Transaction Volume Soars to Nearly $8 Billion
On-chain data indicates that Asia's Web3 market is growing.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Tiger Research Reports
Translation: TechFlow
Key Takeaways:
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The Asian market is highly diverse and complex, with varying regulations and cultures. Understanding the characteristics of each country is key to participating in the Web3 industry.
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Asia has a large population of young digital natives, giving it significant potential to lead in the Web3 space—especially in super apps and consumer-facing applications.
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On-chain data indicates that Asia's Web3 market is growing, as shown by metrics such as stablecoin usage, developer activity, decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume, and engagement on Web3 social media platforms.
1. Diversity and Complexity of the Asian Market
To understand the Asian market, one must recognize its diversity and complexity. Asia has over 2,300 languages, spans multiple regions—including Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and South Asia—and operates under more than 48 distinct regulatory frameworks. Cultural differences within Asia often exceed those between Western countries.
This diversity also shapes the region’s Web3 landscape. In Northeast Asia, each country adopts a unique approach: China enforces strict regulation, South Korea combines oversight with incubation, while Japan supports Web3 through government policy. This distinctive mix across Asia demands tailored strategies and deep local understanding for success.
2. Strong Foundations for Growth in Asia
Despite the challenges posed by its diversity, Asia’s importance cannot be overstated. Home to over 60% of the world’s population, Asia contributes 34% of global GDP and maintains a growth rate of 3.6%, outpacing both North America and Europe.
Three main factors position Asia at the forefront of the Web3 industry. First, the region hosts a massive cryptocurrency user base—60% of global crypto users, or 320 million people, reside in Asia, driven largely by its vast population of young digital natives (Triple-A). Second, trading activity is robust: in early 2024, Korean won-denominated trading volumes surpassed those in U.S. dollars, and recently, more than half of Binance’s web traffic originated from Asia. Third, Asia boasts a strong talent pool in technology, with 50 million GitHub developers and 40% of the world’s Web3 game developers located in the region.
3. Asia’s Web3 Advantages: Consumer Focus and Super Apps
For Web3 to achieve mass adoption, consumer-friendly applications accessible to the general public are essential. Relying solely on technical infrastructure is insufficient. This mirrors the early development of the internet, where “killer apps” like email drove rapid adoption. Similarly, Web3 is expected to gain widespread traction through applications that naturally integrate into daily life.
Asia stands out in two key areas. First, it leads in consumer-driven innovation. As of October 2024, 42% of unicorns in Asia are B2C companies—a higher proportion than in North America or Europe. This advantage stems from Asia’s large digital-native population and advanced mobile payment systems. A consumer-first mindset positions Asia as a likely hub for emerging Web3 applications.
The second strength lies in Asia’s unique ecosystem of super apps. Leading platforms such as WeChat, Alipay, Kakao, Line, and Grab began as single-service apps but have evolved into comprehensive digital ecosystems. These super apps are now integral to the daily lives of hundreds of millions, offering services ranging from payments and commerce to entertainment.
The TON blockchain exemplifies the potential of integrating Web3 into super apps. By embedding Web3 features into the widely used messaging app Telegram, user numbers surged due to increased convenience. These examples show that super apps can effectively lower the barrier to entry for Web3. Such integration introduces new services within familiar environments, accelerating Web3 adoption.
4. Data-Driven Analysis of Asia’s Web3 Market
The Asian market shows strong potential. However, relying solely on expectations and high-level indicators may provide only a superficial view. Deep insights come from analyzing real user behavior through on-chain data.
Japan’s evolving stablecoin policies illustrate why deeper analysis is needed. Although stablecoin guidelines were issued in June 2022 and legal amendments in 2023 permitted their issuance, these policies have not yet translated into significant on-chain impact. This is mainly because use cases for trust-based stablecoins on public blockchains remain limited, and regulatory hurdles persist. To bridge the gap between policy and practice, detailed on-chain analysis is essential.
Next, we examine on-chain data to assess whether the anticipated growth in Asia’s Web3 market is materializing.
4.1. Stablecoins in Asia
Stablecoin usage in Asia is steadily increasing—a significant trend given that stablecoins are among the most product-market-fit solutions in Web3. On-chain data reveals that stablecoin transaction volumes in Asia have soared to nearly $8 billion and are projected to continue rising from 2022 to 2024.
Stablecoins pegged to national currencies are expanding real-world utility. Local currency-backed stablecoins such as Singapore’s XSGD and Indonesia’s XIDR are gaining momentum. The integration of XSGD with services like Grab is driving practical adoption. This localization strategy, combined with integration into everyday services, is fueling increased stablecoin transactions. Sustained growth suggests a structural shift in the Asian market rather than a short-term spike.
4.2. On-Chain Activity of Asian Developers
Asian developers are increasingly active in smart contract development. This trend is evident in on-chain data from Ethereum’s mainnet and testnets (Goerli and Sepolia).
By 2024, Asian developers had created approximately 1.7 million contracts on these testnets—far exceeding activity levels in North America and Europe. Rapid growth since 2022 is mirrored on Ethereum’s mainnet. Asia’s share of contract creation rose from 4% in 2020 to 40% in 2024.
This shift highlights two trends: first, Asian developers are becoming key drivers of blockchain innovation; second, blockchain development is moving beyond its Western roots. High testnet activity reflects active experimentation, positioning Asian developers as crucial contributors to the future of Web3.
4.3. Participation of Asian Retail Investors in DEX Trading
Trading data from Uniswap shows strong participation from Asia. From 2021 to 2024, Asian users consistently accounted for a major portion of total trading volume, with steady increases over time.
Notably, shifts in participation rates among different investor types in Asia are worth attention. When segmenting trade sizes into large investors (> $100K), mid-tier investors ($10K–$100K), and small investors (< $10K), a clear trend emerges. In 2021, “shrimp” investors contributed little to overall volume. By 2024, however, their share of both transaction count and volume had risen steadily. This is a positive signal indicating that more users in Asia are actively engaging with Web3 services—not just on centralized exchanges (CEX), but also on decentralized exchanges (DEX).
4.4. Activity of Asian Users on the Web3 Social Network Farcaster
Within the Web3 ecosystem, the activity of Asian users on Farcaster has drawn attention. Daily active user (DAU) analysis shows that Asian users are more active than their counterparts in North America and Europe. Despite English being the dominant language in Web3, posts in local languages—such as Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean—are steadily increasing. This indicates that Web3 growth in Asia is already underway, not merely speculative. Asia is leading in actual Web3 usage.
5. Conclusion
The Asian market is diverse, with unique regulations, cultural distinctions, and differing national approaches. This complexity presents both challenges and opportunities for Web3. Understanding the distinct role of each country is critical. On-chain data, by revealing real user behavior, uncovers the true potential of Asia’s Web3 market.
Regional analysis based on on-chain data is vital for ecosystem growth. Advances in digital credentials and geographic attribution will enhance the accuracy of user behavior insights. These tools enable a clearer understanding of regional contexts and preferences within Asia’s Web3 landscape.
Appendix. Research Methodology
Analyzing blockchain transactions by time is a straightforward method that allows clear segmentation by hour of day. However, short-term data such as one-off transactions or irregular activity may not accurately reflect overall behavioral patterns. To address this, we focus more on long-term wallet transaction patterns rather than individual transaction timestamps. Additionally, to ensure data reliability, we exclude wallet addresses associated with sources that could distort accuracy—such as automated bots, project teams, and exchanges. We employ identification methods like crypto name services (CNS) and credentials to distinguish real users from bots. We also leverage tag data from platforms like Dune Analytics to filter out project-related addresses. Work and sleep hours are defined as follows:
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United States: Work hours from 8 AM to 8 PM ET (13:00–01:00 UTC), sleep hours from 12 AM to 6 AM ET (05:00–11:00 UTC)
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Europe: Work hours from 8 AM to 8 PM CET (07:00–19:00 UTC), sleep hours from 12 AM to 6 AM CET (23:00–05:00 UTC)
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Asia: Work hours from 8 AM to 8 PM CST (00:00–12:00 UTC), sleep hours from 12 AM to 6 AM CST (16:00–22:00 UTC)
In our geolocation analysis, we focus on activity during work hours (8 AM–8 PM) and low activity during sleep hours (12 AM–6 AM), rather than just raw time-of-day data. Users showing significantly reduced activity during a region’s nighttime are more likely to be based there. We assign a weight of 0.3 to activity hours and 0.7 to sleep hours. Validated against partner network traffic data, this method reduces error rates fivefold compared to simple time-based analysis, with average error below 2%. As identity verification and digital credential services evolve, even more accurate regional analysis will become possible. This will become a key tool for analyzing the Web3 ecosystem, where understanding local context and user behavior patterns is essential.
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