Australia Tightens Crypto Oversight as APAC Volumes Triple in Three Years

A new report from crypto research firm Chainalysis has found that the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) has emerged as crypto’s fastest growing region in terms of on-chain value received.

Analysing the period from July 2022 to the end of June 2025, Chainalysis found that on-chain value received during this time exploded from around US$81 million to a peak of over US$244 million (AU$122m to $370m) in December of 2024 — a greater than 300% increase in two and a half years.

“As the fastest growing region in the world in terms of on-chain value received, APAC has emerged as a key growth driver globally, frequently ranking second only to Europe in terms of volumes and occasionally outpacing North America in monthly totals,” the report’s authors said.

“The data reflects APAC’s expanding influence in global markets and its sustained momentum heading into the latter half of 2025.”

The report found that while Australia was only the sixth largest crypto market in APAC, it has been doing important regulatory work to establish a more forward looking and mature digital assets market.

Australia is taking steps forward by modernizing its AML/CFT regime, cleaning up inactive digital currency exchange licenses, and bringing clearer oversight to the sector, laying groundwork for a more mature market.

Chainalysis 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report

Related: Australia’s Next Chapter in Digital Money: Why Yield-Bearing Stablecoins Matter

Different Paths to Adoption Across APAC

The APAC region is highly diverse, with a mix of developed economies such as Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Australia, and developing economies like India, Vietnam and Indonesia. The report found that these very different economies are taking different paths toward integrating digital assets.

India, which was identified as the largest market in the region at US$338 billion (AU$513b), “blends grassroots adoption with structural gaps in finance,” according to Chainalysis. Indian users leverage crypto for a variety of purposes, including sending remittances to family and trading to supplement their incomes, while its institutional users take advantage of crypto-based payment rails like UPI and eRupi.

“India’s crypto market is both fast-growing and highly complex,” the report concluded. 

India’s broader digital economy provides strong foundations for this growth. The country’s thriving fintech ecosystem, widespread use of UPI payments, and innovations such as eRupi showcase India’s ability to adapt to new financial technologies at scale.

Chainalysis 2025 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report

In South Korea — the second largest APAC market — digital assets have already been broadly adopted as investment products and are “traded almost like equities — liquid, speculative, and mainstream.”

By contrast, in Vietnam, digital assets are used more for day-to-day financial activity such as “remittances, gaming, and savings.” While in Pakistan, crypto is also used for remittances, but stablecoins have also become an important means of hedging against inflation and receiving payment, particularly for freelancers.

Related: South Korea Launches First KRW1 Stablecoin on Avalanche, Fully Backed by Won

Somewhat surprisingly, Japan only ranked as the fifth largest APAC market, however it’s seen the strongest growth in the 12 months to June 2025, increasing in size by 120% over the previous year. This growth has been driven largely by pro-crypto regulatory reforms that’ve seen Japan gain ground on the APAC market leaders after several years of sluggish growth.

“The latest growth comes amid several policy developments that will support market growth over time (including regulatory reforms to better account for the role of crypto as investment instruments, planned changes to the crypto tax regime, and the licensing of the first yen-backed stablecoin issuer).”