26 Cryptocurrency Statistics You Need to Know in 2022

How Cryptocurrency Works

A cryptocurrency is a form of digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography. The currency units are often referred to as tokens or coins. 

The entire transaction history of the currency is recorded on a distributed ledger or database called a blockchain. The blockchain is maintained by a distributed network of computer nodes. These nodes verify and add new transactions to the database in “blocks” and prevent the addition of false data to the blockchain. 

One of the most important elements of cryptocurrency is that it is decentralized and tokens are not issued from a central authority. This is aimed to prevent government interference and censorship as well as to discourage corruption or human error by a centralized board or company.

There are a wide range of cryptocurrencies available online for trading or as a form of payment. The most well-known, Bitcoin and Ethereum, have entered the mainstream vernacular and share a large portion of the global cryptocurrency market. Everyday, developers are working on new cryptocurrencies and uses for blockchain technology. 

The cryptocurrency market is a vastly expanding financial market that is subject to huge volatility as prices spike and crash regularly. This is largely due to market speculation and social media influences. As such it’s important to do your research thoroughly before investing in any cryptocurrency.

How Big Is the Global Cryptocurrency Market?

The cryptocurrency market is now valued at over $2 trillion globally. Over recent years, banks and large institutions have started pouring money into the crypto market recognizing the growth potential in this space. Hedge funds and investment firms have broadened their portfolios to include this emerging market. 

A large part of this market is also focused in emerging economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America. These countries have been quick to adopt cryptocurrencies and integrate them into their societies with El Salvador accepting Bitcoin as legal tender since 2021. They have seen the potential for growth in the cryptocurrency market size and want to capitalize on the money pouring in across the world. 

Major players in some of the largest economies such as China, US and Europe have also diverted resources into expanding into the crypto space. This has brought legal scrutiny to the role of cryptocurrencies in the financial world with many governments looking to regulate the use of cryptocurrencies. 

This may cause fluctuation in the global markets as countries like Egypt have banned the use of digital currencies completely and many countries are beginning to bring in tight regulations surrounding the use of cryptocurrencies.

Why We Chose These Cryptocurrency Stats

The plethora of information and statistics available online can be overwhelming to anyone! It’s hard to sift through all the websites and forums to find the right information. With whitepapers, scholarly articles, GitHub pages and extremely technical analyses online, it’s easy to feel lost or confused.

That’s why we’ve gathered 26 statistics that we think will help you understand where cryptocurrency is today and where it’s going. We’ve looked at the adoption of crypto worldwide, the growth of DeFi and the positions of some of the top cryptocurrencies out there.

Some of the statistics show just how large the cryptocurrency market has become and the volume of transactions dealt with daily. We’ve also taken a look at where regulation is heading and some of the security and mining issues that cryptocurrency is currently facing.

We believe these statistics will give you a clear picture of the cryptocurrency landscape going into 2022.

General Cryptocurrency Statistics

We’ve put together a range of statistics that will give an overview of how widespread cryptocurrency has become and the daily trading volume of the cryptocurrency market.

The sheer range of DeFi (Decentralized Finance) services and cryptocurrencies available today is astounding and more are created every day. Users trade daily and spend their crypto tokens online and in-person.

Bitcoin has maintained its position as one of the top leading virtual currencies and as a simple form of digital cash. However, DeFi platforms like Ethereum and Solana are experiencing huge growth as users flock to these platforms to benefit from the Decentralized Finance options available without the high costs and strict regulations of traditional banking institutions. 

Cryptocurrency trading platforms and exchanges deal with a huge amount of volume daily and the market capitalization of crypto has grown to over $2 trillion. Our stats will help show just how permeated the financial landscape has become with cryptocurrencies and DeFi.

1. A post on Bitcoin surfaces on social media every three seconds.

In recent years, Bitcoin has become a household name and for many people with little understanding of cryptocurrency technology, Bitcoin has become synonymous with crypto. With 20 posts per minute we can see just how popular the original cryptocurrency has become!

This statistic shows just how widespread interest in cryptocurrency is and how permeated social media has become with crypto news and discussion. 

While other financial markets react mainly to political or industry news, cryptocurrencies can spike or crash solely by the power of social media. Huge spikes can be seen in the wake of high profile figures like Elon Musk tweeting their support of a token. 

It has become a vital part of investing in cryptocurrencies to keep an ear to the ground and watch social media for trends.

(Source: Finder)

2. Bitcoin’s price has grown by 66% in February 2021.

The original cryptocurrency coin, Bitcoin has maintained its position as a leader in the global crypto markets. In 2020, the token’s value was just $10,000 and by January 2021 it had grown to $30,000. 

And then in February 2021, we saw the price jump to $50,000! This means if you invested $10,000 at the start of 2020 and sold your tokens in February 2021, you would have made a profit of $40,000. This shows just how much your assets can grow using cryptocurrency and how holding on to your tokens can reap huge rewards down the line. 

Users who hold on to their tokens believing the price will continue to go up are called hodlers after a drunken typo on a bitcoin forum. Many of the original hodlers have gone on to make millions from persevering through market swings.

(Source: Tech Crunch)

3. Tether was the biggest cryptocurrency as of February 22nd, with a $109 billion 24-hour volume.

Tether has become the go-to currency for people who want to enter the cryptocurrency landscape with low risk. Tether is a stablecoin that is pegged to traditional fiat currencies like euros or dollars. That means 1 USDT is equivalent to 1 US dollar and so it is not subject to the same market volatility as most cryptocurrencies. 

Many people now keep their crypto holdings in Tether tokens as a way to store value until they want to trade or spend it. This means they can quickly trade their tokens to take advantage of market changes when they happen and until then their tokens will retain their value. Purchasing crypto using dollars can take days, with Tether you can purchase other currencies easily. 

Tether has seen huge growth as the go-to currency for initial crypto investing without exposing themselves to the volatile cryptocurrency markets. Tether claims their tokens are always backed up by their reserves so users can withdraw their fiat currency at any point.

(Source: Statista)

4. Ethereum got about 1 million daily transactions in 2020.

Bitcoins biggest competitor, Ethereum, had the largest daily transaction volume in 2020. 

Bitcoin had around 300,000 cryptocurrency transactions a day in comparison which shows just how popular the Ethereum blockchain has become. With a wide range of dApps and smart contracts available on the Ethereum platform, Ethereum has become the home of DeFi.

In 2021, Bitcoins daily crypto transaction volume had decreased to around 250,000 but Ethereum continues to handle a higher volume as DeFi popularity grows. 

In 2021, Ethereum handled 1.25 million cryptocurrency transactions daily which is even more impressive considering the range of competitors like Avalanche and Solana that have sprung up to capitalize on the DeFi craze.

(Source: Statista)

5. There was 667 million new crypto-malware by March 2020.

As more money pours into crypto, more malicious actors look to scam users out of their funds. 

Hackers have developed a range of viruses and malware that can transfer your funds out of your wallet or mine coins in the background using your internet and electricity (crypto-jacking). 

These can even come in the form of airdropped NFTs or new tokens being launched that install a virus that results in cryptocurrency theft when they are added to your wallet.

This shows just how careful you have to be and how doing careful research not only pays off financially but keeps you and your funds safe online. Many cryptocurrencies have partnered with crypto security firms like Certik to ensure the safety of their users. 

(Source: Statista)

6. The first ten cryptocurrencies with the highest market cap make up about 88% of the total cryptocurrency market value.

While there are over 10,000 cryptocurrencies out there, many enjoy only a small success while a huge proportion fail entirely. To succeed, a cryptocurrency has to be innovative and have a strong passionate core community of developers and users as well as a myriad of other factors. 

Only a handful of cryptocurrencies as shown have become major players in the crypto landscape. These include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, Binance and Ripple. The remaining thousands of cryptocurrencies share just 12% of the market capitalization.

(Source: Block Social)

7. Cryptocurrency exchanges around the globe exceeded 300 as of 2020.

Cryptocurrency exchanges act as an intermediary for buying and selling crypto online. With the more mainstream exchanges, you can buy crypto using a credit or debit card while some only let you exchange cryptocurrencies. 

While centralized crypto exchanges like Binance and Mandala handle most of the trading volume, there has been a huge growth in Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs). DEXs let you trade cryptocurrencies without a middle man and often have much lower fees than the mainstream exchanges. 

DEXs have seen a huge growth in usage as DeFi becomes more and more popular. DEXs let you have full control over your funds – often centralized exchanges manage your crypto wallet. This means if the exchange is hacked all your tokens could be lost!

(Source: Block Social)

Cryptocurrency Adoption Statistics

A decade ago very few people had even heard of cryptocurrency let alone owned a crypto wallet or traded tokens online. Since then the cryptocurrency space has experienced a boom similar to that of the internet in the late 1990s. 

As investors boast of huge profits on social media, new users flock to the cryptocurrency market to see if they can achieve the same results. Worldwide, corporations have started to integrate blockchain technology into their business model. Companies in Europe, China and the US have started pumping money into the cryptocurrency space.

The number of crypto wallets and active users continues to grow alongside the trading volume of crypto through exchange platforms. According to Wells Fargo, cryptocurrency is reaching a point of “hyper adoption”. Here we will look at just how widespread blockchain technology is about to become in 2022 and the high volume of financial transactions conducted in the cryptocurrency landscape.

8. There were 68 million wallet users by February 2021.

At the start of 2021 there were 68 million cryptocurrency wallet users on Blockchain.com and in only a year this number has grown to 81 million as cryptocurrency gains mainstream appeal. This shows the worldwide trend in the adoption of digital currencies. 

As mobile apps become more developed and easy-to-use, we should see a marked increase in blockchain wallet users globally as crypto becomes accessible to the world’s unbanked and everyday users with less knowledge of blockchain technology. 

(Source: Statista)

9. Collectively Blockfi and Bitpay offered decentralized financing worth $232 million in 2020.

DeFi has seen a huge growth in the services offered with decentralized financing provided by users. It is easy to see the trend with major industry leaders like Blockfi offering decentralized loans with crypto provided as collateral while Bitpay supports Bitcoin as a payment method and has offered over $72 million in payments.

As services like Compound and AAVE spring up that offer decentralized lending services where users can lend their crypto to others and earn interest, this sector looks set to grow massively in 2022.

(Source: Crunchbase News)

10. Europe will see blockchain funding of $300 billion by 2022.

As cryptocurrency has become popular, the underlying technology has gained significant interest from many industries across Europe. 

Many of these are not focused on developing digital currencies but instead are designed to provide blockchain solutions to industry problems. This includes managing supply chains on the blockchain, maintaining records and tracking payments. 

There has also been a huge growth in cryptocurrency security with many companies looking for a trustworthy way to store their crypto without being hacked or targeted. Blockchain audit companies have started to spring up as stricter regulation looms on the horizon. 

While Europe has been slower to adopt blockchain technology than Asia and Latin America, this looks set to change in 2022.

(Source: Crunchbase News)

11. By the end of 2030, banks will save $27 billion through blockchain adoption.

As blockchain technology becomes more widespread, many are looking to it for solutions to the banking industry’s problems. Transferring money across borders can take days and incur substantial fees as money passes between institutions. 

Adopting blockchain technology for cross-border transaction settlement could drastically reduce fees by an estimated $27 billion in the coming years. 

Many banks have already started investing in blockchain technology and banks like USAA, Revolut and Morgan Stanley already accept and trade in cryptocurrencies.

(Source: CCN)

12. Daily transactions for Bitcoin nearly reached the 400,000 mark in the first quarter of 2021.

Bitcoin reached its highest ever daily transaction volume in early January 2021 due to worldwide interest in the market. This volume surpassed almost all other cryptocurrencies except Ethereum.

While this number has stabilized to between 200,000 and 300,000 since, this shows just how popular the first cryptocurrency remains. While other cryptocurrencies may offer more features and DeFi services, Bitcoin is still one of the most used tokens out there.

Bitcoin is the most readily accepted cryptocurrency by online vendors and stores which has been a factor in the high transaction volume experienced daily. 

(Source: Statista)

Cryptocurrency Statistics by Country

Cryptocurrency adoption has not been even across the board. While countries in Europe and North America have funneled huge amounts of money into the crypto sphere, much of this has been through venture capital firms and high profile investors. 

China has seen a high adoption rate of virtual currencies both by individuals and companies. While decentralized cryptocurrencies are tightly regulated by the Chinese government for individual use, China has been piloting their own centralized currency for citizens. Companies in China have been some of the earliest adopters of blockchain technology and a huge amount of crypto start-ups are based in China.

In emerging and developing economies, crypto has seen a particularly high rate of adoption as citizens without a bank account can use crypto as a way to access financial services and pay for goods and services.

In many of the countries in Africa and Asia, mobile phones have been used for years for peer-to-peer money transfers which made the adoption of crypto a natural progression. 

Many of these countries have seen crypto as an alternative to their own unstable fiat currency which has led to higher adoption rates than in Western countries.

13. 79% of cryptocurrency owners in the UK have invested in Bitcoin.

Out of the 2.3 million Brits who own cryptocurrency almost 4 in 5 have invested in the popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. This shows that Bitcoin remains one of the main stepping stones into the wider world of crypto. 

This also shows the hesitancy of UK users to step into the deep end of crypto and invest in less conventional crypto currencies. As knowledge and adoption grows this statistic looks set to change, especially as Bitcoin becomes harder to mine and profit from. 

(Source: Finder)

14. In early 2021, China launched its digital currency second trial.

China has been a leader in adopting cryptocurrency technology. In 2021 they launched the second trial of the digital yuan (e-CNY), as part of their aim to be the first country with a sovereign digital currency. 

In Shenzhen (a technological area) citizens were given digital yuan through a lottery system using the official app and had a limited period to spend it. 

This is part of a series of pilot trials to test how successful the adoption of e-CNY can be. In 2022, the virtual currency will be rolled out in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing amongst other Chinese regions.

(Source: WARC)

15. There were 1000+ US corporate blockchain projects in the pipelines as of late 2020.

Initially, the US saw adoption of crypto by individuals but this has spread to corporations over time and the underlying blockchain technology has gained significant interest from many industries.

The US has over a thousand projects currently in development using blockchain technology. While a huge portion of these are in early stages, 2022 should see a wide adoption of blockchain technology across many American industries.

(Source: Forbes)

16. The US has the highest number of token sales ever (48%) in 2020.

In the wake of the cryptocurrency boom, thousands of new tokens have sprung up via Initial Coin Offerings (new token sales). These ICOs raise capital for each new cryptocurrency project by selling new tokens to investors who want to get in early on a project.

Almost half of these sales took place in the American cryptocurrency market with a diverse range of investors and range from well-known successful projects to failed tokens and scams. It is difficult to distinguish between a token that will succeed or a scam project which is why many Initial Coin Offerings now occur on centralized exchanges where the exchange has vetted the project.

(Source: Block Social)

17. Nigeria was the leading country for cryptocurrency ownership/usage, with 32% in 2020.

Nigeria has seen mass adoption of cryptocurrency as a useful currency rather than a speculative market.

In spite of government disapproval, cryptocurrency has been adopted widely for business transactions in Nigeria. One important factor is that Nigerians are turning to crypto as a way to store value as their own currency, the naira, loses value rapidly.  

While banks are not permitted to conduct business using crypto in Nigeria, citizens are increasingly turning to cryptocurrency. This has been spurred on by the younger tech-focused generation who have been using mobile peer-to-peer payment systems for years.

(Source: Statista)

Cryptocurrency Market Statistics

The cryptocurrency market is a volatile and speculative space with high risks and high rewards. 24 hours can make a huge difference to cryptocurrency prices and the market can lose or gain billions. 

Overall the cryptocurrency market has been expanding as mainstream industries start to adopt cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology as part of their industry.

However some are still hesitant to invest in such a volatile market and many hold their crypto funds in stable coins or more centralized currencies that are managed by an organization or team. 

The cryptocurrency market has been a victim of major hacks and individuals have lost all their funds through malware, rug-pulling and identity fraud. However in response the market has tightened security and developed solutions.

We’ve compiled these statistics to give you a comprehensive view of the growing cryptocurrency market and where blockchain technology is heading.

18. The cryptocurrency market lost $150 billion in 2021.

At the start of 2021, Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies crashed wiping out $150 billion in only 24 hours. Bitcoin had hit a peak of $42,000 the previous week and then crashed to $34,200. Ether (Ethereum’s native token) had dropped by 15% in value and other cryptocurrencies followed suit. 

This shows just how volatile the cryptocurrency market can be and the risk of investing in a speculative market. Often when the price of a currency reaches an all-time high, many token holders sell quickly hoping to make a profit which causes the price to crash.

(Source: CNBC)

19. The global blockchain market is predicted to rise to $23.3 billion by 2023.

The blockchain market looks set to rise from $1.2 billion in 2018 to $23.3 billion in 2023. Some of the driving factors behind this are the large number of venture capital firms investing in the cryptocurrency market and the adoption of blockchain technology for supply chain management. 

There’s also been a huge growth in the digital identity market. This is a way of storing your data on the blockchain while retaining privacy. Medical records, financial history and more can be stored and only accessed using your private key. Blockchain technology in 2022 looks set to be a hugely successful industry. 

(Source: PR News Wire)

20. The world is predicted to spend up to 15.9 billion in blockchain-related tech by 2023.

In 2018, the world spent $1.5 billion on blockchain related technology. Since then this amount has grown rapidly as mainstream corporations integrate blockchain tech into their supply chains, data management and payment systems.

As banks and financial institutions start to adopt and accept digital currencies we will see a huge growth in using blockchain technology for cross-border payment settling as an alternative to existing methods.

(Source: Statista)

21. In 2020, tokens raised only $20 million in sales.

In 2017 over $3.5 billion was raised through Initial Coin Offerings (or token sales). These ICOs raise capital for each new cryptocurrency project by selling new tokens to investors who want to get in early on a project.

Why has this number dropped so drastically? While 2017 was the year of the cryptocurrency boom, not every token was successful. Many of these simply failed or were scams capitalizing on the new flow of money into the cryptocurrency space. 

Notably there have been many “rug-pulls” hosted on decentralized exchanges where anyone can list a token for sale. A rug pull is when the developing team of a token stops all activity and leaves with the funds raised by selling tokens.

The Squid Game token (inspired by the Netflix series) was hosted on Uniswap, a DEX and the developers made off with all the investment money ($3.38 million) while investors were left with tokens that had no value and could not be sold. 

Since 2017, users have been more cautious in investing in new tokens that haven’t been vetted preferring to invest in already successful coins.

(Source: Block Social)

Cryptocurrency Mining Statistics

Cryptocurrency mining is the process by which Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies issue new coins and validate transactions. It involves solving complex mathematical problems using a huge amount of resources and energy consumption. 

Miners compete to validate a block of transactions by solving these computations. Miners are then rewarded with new tokens that are issued for every block they mine and add to the blockchain. 

This validation process is known as Proof-of Work and is the most commonly used way to verify transactions using cryptography. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and many other cryptocurrencies use this process. 

Most mining is done by large mining pools using specialized rigs due to the cost of mining and the resources involved. We’ve gathered statistics that show just how expensive mining Bitcoin has become and why everyday users have been priced out of the system.

<H3> 22. The average cost of running a big mining operation is $1576 per year.

Mining was originally accessible to anyone with an internet connection and a computer. As the mining process has become more resource intensive, specialized rigs have been designed that can handle the computational work involved in mining Bitcoin. 

The majority of mining is done by mining pools who run these rigs 24/7 with high electricity and hardware costs. Although the rewards are high, this has made mining inaccessible to most users. 

(Source: Entrepreneur)

<H3> 23. Miners get 6.25 Bitcoin per new block in 2021.

For every block of transactions that is “mined” and added to the blockchain, new bitcoin is issued as a reward.

In 2009, when Bitcoin was launched, 50 BTC were issued to the miner for every block. Every four years this amount is halved to deal with inflation and create a finite supply of BTC tokens. So after 2013, 25 tokens were issued per block for the next four years.

In May 2020 the amount of tokens issued became 6.25 BTC and this will continue until 2024. In 2024 only 3.125 BTC will be issued per block. 

So far every halving has resulted in an increase in the price of Bitcoin and this looks set to continue in the next halving.

(Source: Business Insider Africa)

<H3> 24. It takes an average of 10 minutes to verify a Bitcoin transaction.

Mining involves a huge amount of computations to be chosen to verify transactions and add a new block to the Bitcoin blockchain. Transactions can only be added in bundles as a block.

If two different blocks are added at the same time this causes the blockchain to split into two separate blockchains (this is called a fork).

The Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto designed the computations so that it would take around ten minutes to solve which would give enough time for all the nodes in the system to reach a consensus on what block to add.

As a result for a transaction to be verified as part of a block it takes 10 minutes and 6 blocks are added every hour.

(Source: Coin Central)

Cryptocurrency Security Statistics

As cryptocurrency experienced a boom in 2017, so too did cryptocurrency crime. Looking to profit off the huge inflow of money into the cryptocurrency space, hackers and malicious actors started figuring out new ways to scam users out of their funds.

This includes crypto-jacking, cryptocurrency theft, malware, malicious NFT airdrops, 51% attacks and a myriad of other schemes created by hackers.

In response to this, developers have been working on methods to prevent these attacks and anti-virus software has been expanding their scope to include crypto malware.

It’s vital that you take care with investing in new coins and ensure the trustworthiness of any project or application you use in the crypto market.

As you can see with the cryptocurrency theft statistics we’ve gathered, crypto crime is falling but hackers will always invent new methods of scamming users online.

25. 4.32% of the total Monero cryptocurrency in circulation comes from crypto-jacking.

Crypto-jacking is the use of someone else’s resources for mining cryptocurrencies. This is often done by a hacker installing malware onto an unsuspecting user’s computer.

This malware then runs in the background mining and using a huge amount of resources. A user may not figure out what is happening for a long time and experience extremely high electricity bills and slow performance.

Monero is a privacy focused cryptocurrency which has many benefits for users concerned with anonymity online however this also makes it a breeding ground for crypto criminals who capitalize on the untraceability inherent to Monero. Once tokens are mined and sent to a wallet it’s impossible to trace them back to anyone. 

That’s why it’s vital to have secure anti-virus software and to be careful of what websites you frequent online and how you interact with cryptocurrencies.

(Source: Coin Desk)

26. In 2020, crypto theft was down by almost 60%.

While the amount of hacks and crypto fraud attempts in 2019 and 2020 remained at similar levels, the value stolen or scammed was 160% higher in 2019 than 2020. This shows that the cryptocurrency world is taking steps to secure its assets and is learning how to deal with the inherent risks of a decentralized financial system. 

As security systems tighten it becomes harder to steal large sums successfully without being traced. Many hackers have turned to low level scams of individuals using identity fraud rather than the large scale attempts like the Mt Gox hack of 2014 which saw $460 million worth of Bitcoin stolen from the exchange. 

Often hackers will pose as a reputable platform to gain a user’s private keys. In 2021, an individual uploaded a fake Trezor wallet to the Apple App store that asked users to provide their keys. At this point, the info was uploaded to the anonymous individual who could transfer all the funds to their own wallet.

(Source: Security Magazine)