Thanks to its well-defined regulatory framework, Malta[1] now accounts for the largest share of cryptocurrency trading[2] volume in the world. This conclusion comes from a Business Insider report[3] Sunday, Apr 29, that cites a recent research done by the Morgan Stanley bank.
A team of Morgan Stanley researchers, led by analyst Sheena Shah, has conducted a study on the distribution of cryptocurrency exchanges and crypto trading volume across all countries, based on volume data from Coinmarketcap[4] and company registration info listed on the websites of the respective exchanges.
The top five countries by crypto trade volume are, in order, Malta, Belize, Seychelles, the US[5] and South Korea[6], whereas the countries that are home to the largest number of exchanges are the UK[7], Hong Kong[8], USA, Singapore[9] and Turkey.
One of the study’s primary discoveries was a discrepancy evident in the data from Malta and Belize - the two countries are the first and second in the world by trade volume but only 22nd and 24th by the number of registered companies respectively.
According to the researchers, this seeming contradiction is explained by the fact that these relatively small countries actually host the two largest exchanges by trading volume. Binance moved from Hong Kong to Malta after promising to do so[10] in March of this year and OKEx, currently the second biggest exchange as per Coinmarketcap data[11], is officially registered in Belize. Shah commented:
"The largest exchange called Binance announced intentions to set up headquarters there, so if we take that company out, Malta would be much further down the list."
Among other notable finds made
