Author: Jay Jo
Translation: Blockchain in Vernacular
Brief summary:
The Asian market is complex and diverse, with different regulations and cultures. To participate in the Web3 industry, you must have a deep understanding of the characteristics of each country.
Asia’s large population of young, digital natives offers great potential for leading the Web3 market, especially in super apps and consumer applications.
On-chain data shows that the Asian Web3 market is growing, mainly reflected in the increase in indicators such as stablecoin usage, developer activity, decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume and Web3 social media interaction.
1. Diversity and complexity of the Asian market
To understand the Asian market, you first need to recognize its diversity and complexity. Asia has more than 2,300 languages, covers different regions such as Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia and South Asia, and has more than 48 regulatory frameworks. The cultural differences within Asia are often greater than those between Western countries.
This diversity has also profoundly impacted the Web3 industry in Asia. In Northeast Asia, each country has a unique approach: China implements strict regulation, South Korea combines regulation with incubation support, and Japan promotes Web3 development through government initiatives. This unique combination in Asia requires market-specific strategies and nuanced understanding to succeed.
2. Asia’s strong growth fundamentals
Asia’s diversity presents challenges, but its importance cannot be ignored: it is home to more than 60% of the world’s population, contributes 34% of global GDP, and has a growth rate of 3.6%, surpassing North America and Europe.
Asia is leading the Web3 industry for three main reasons:
First, Asia has a huge cryptocurrency user base, with approximately 60% of global crypto users (320 million people) coming from the region, driven primarily by a young and digitally native population (data source: Triple-A).
Second, Asia excels in trading activity: in early 2024, South Korea's won-based trading volume exceeded its dollar-based trading volume, and recently more than half of BN's website traffic also came from Asia.
Finally, Asia has strong technical talent, including 50 million GitHub developers and 40% of the world’s Web3 game developers.
3. Advantages of the Asian Web3 Market: Consumer-centric and Super Apps
The key to popularizing the Web3 industry is to develop consumer applications that are easy for the public to use, and it is not enough to just build technical infrastructure. This is similar to the development path of the Internet in the past, where killer applications such as email drove the rapid popularization of the Internet. Similarly, Web3 is expected to achieve widespread popularity through consumer applications that can be naturally integrated into daily life.
Asia stands out in two aspects. First, Asia leads in consumer-centric innovation. As of October 2024, 42% of Asia's unicorns are B2C companies, a higher proportion than North America and Europe (data source: CB Insights). This advantage stems from Asia's large population of digital natives and advanced mobile payment systems. The consumer-driven development approach makes Asia a potential center for new Web3 applications.
Asia’s second biggest advantage is its unique super app ecosystem. Leading platforms such as WeChat, Alipay, Kakao, Line and Grab started out as single-service apps and have now evolved into comprehensive digital ecosystems. These super apps have become part of the daily lives of millions of users, covering a variety of services such as payment, shopping, entertainment, etc.
The TON blockchain demonstrates the potential of Web3 combined with super apps. By adding Web3 functionality to the popular social app Telegram, the number of users surged due to its convenience. These cases show that super apps can lower the barrier to entry to Web3. Introducing new services in an environment that users are familiar with will drive the popularity of Web3.
4. Data-based analysis of the Asian Web3 market
The Asian market shows strong potential, but expectations and indicators alone may be too superficial. Analyzing real user activity through on-chain data is essential to gain a deeper understanding of the market.
Japan's changing stablecoin policy highlights the need for in-depth analysis. Despite the introduction of stablecoin guidelines in June 2022 and legal amendments in 2023 allowing stablecoin issuance, no significant on-chain impact has yet occurred. This is due to limited application scenarios and regulatory barriers to issuing trust-based stablecoins on public blockchains. In order to bridge the gap between policy and adoption, more detailed on-chain analysis is necessary.
Next, we will evaluate whether the projected growth in the Asian market is being realized through on-chain data analysis.
4.1. Stablecoins in Asia
The use of stablecoins in the Asian market is growing steadily. This trend is significant because stablecoins are one of the most suitable product-market fits for Web3. On-chain data shows that stablecoin transfer volume in Asia has surged to nearly $8 billion, and transaction volume is expected to grow further from 2022 to 2024.
Stablecoins pegged to national fiat currencies are creating more real-world application scenarios. Multiple local currency-backed stablecoins have emerged, such as Singapore's XSGD and Indonesia's XIDR. For example, XSGD is connected to services such as Grab, driving real-world applications. This localized approach and integration with real-world services are increasing the trading volume of stablecoins. The continued growth shows that structural changes are taking place in the Asian market, rather than short-term trends.
4.2. On-chain activities of Asian developers
Asian developers are increasingly involved in smart contract development. On-chain data from Ethereum mainnet and testnets (Goerli and Sepolia) confirm this trend.
In 2024, Asian developers created approximately 1.7 million contracts on these testnets, a figure that far exceeds activity in North America and Europe. From 2022 onwards, growth has accelerated, with a similar trend seen on the Ethereum mainnet. Asia’s share of contract creation has grown from 4% in 2020 to 40% in 2024.
This change highlights two trends. First, Asian developers are driving blockchain innovation. Second, blockchain development is expanding from its Western origins to the world. High levels of testnet activity reflect active experimentation and also indicate that Asian developers are key contributors to the future of Web3.
4.3. Participation of Asian retail investors in decentralized exchange (DEX) trading
Uniswap’s trading data shows that Asia has a high level of participation. From 2021 to 2024, Asia has always accounted for a significant share of the total trading volume. During this period, trading activity has grown steadily.
More noteworthy is the difference in participation rates among different types of investors in Asia. When we divide transaction size into whales (above $100,000), sharks ($10,000–$100,000), and shrimps (below $10,000), significant changes can be observed. In 2021, shrimp investors accounted for a smaller share of transaction volume. However, by 2024, their share in both the number of transactions and volume has steadily increased. This change is a positive sign that users in the Asian market are increasingly using Web3 services. They not only participate in transactions on centralized exchanges (CEXs), but are also active on decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
4.4. Asian users’ activities in the Web3 social network Farcaster
Asian users' activity on Farcaster is gaining attention in the Web3 ecosystem. Daily active user (DAU) analysis shows that Asian users are more active than those in North America and Europe. Although English is the dominant language of Web3, posts in local languages such as Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean are steadily increasing. This shows that Web3 growth in Asia is happening, not just expected. Asia is leading the way in Web3 usage.
5. Summary
The Asian market is diverse, with unique regulations, cultural differences, and different practices across countries. This complexity presents challenges and opportunities for Web3. It is critical to understand the unique role of each country. On-chain data reveals the potential of the Asian Web3 market by capturing real user behavior.
Regional analysis based on on-chain data is critical to the growth of the ecosystem. Advances in digital credentials and regional analysis will improve the accuracy of user behavior insights. These tools will help to more clearly understand the regional context and preferences of the Asian Web3 market.
