Global crypto gains reached $37.6 billion in 2023 following severe losses in 2022, blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis reveals in a new report released Thursday.

U.S. Leads The Way In Total Crypto Gains For 2023

According to the organization’s latest research, the total represents a “significant recovery” from the nearly $127.1 billion in cumulative losses in 2022.

The U.S. led the way in cryptocurrency gains worldwide last year “by a wide margin,” pulling in a total of $9.36 billion.

The United Kingdom came in shortly behind the U.S. with a total of $1.39 billion, followed by Vietnam and China with $1.18 billion and $1.15 billion respectively.

Crypto markets are hot right now, with Bitcoin recently breaking all-time highs. But 2023 wasn’t half bad either! Read our latest blog for a breakdown of our estimates for crypto investors’ gains in 2023, both in total and broken down by country.

— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) March 14, 2024

However, despite growing at the same rate, 2023’s gains estimate falls far short of 2021’s total of $158.7 billion.

Researchers surmise that the difference is due to the fact investors “were less likely to convert crypto assets into cash under the expectation that prices would rise even higher” in 2023 than in 2021.

“While the methodology isn’t perfect, it gives us a strong estimate of gains across popular assets traded on centralized exchanges,” Chainalysis said.

Asia’s Adoption of Cryptocurrencies Is On The Rise

Equally of importance, researchers discovered that a handful of lower-income and middle-income countries (LMI), including India, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia, “achieved outsized gains” relative to crypto  –  with each country hitting over an estimated $1 billion respectively.

“Our gains estimates suggest that many investors in those countries have benefited from their embrace of the asset class,” the report states.

Chainalysis then referred back to its “2023 Geography of Crypto Report,” citing that six out of the top ten countries in last year’s “Global Crypto Adoption Index” were located in Central and Southern Asia, as well as Oceania.

What To Expect From 2024

The latest data from Chainalysis comes shortly after bitcoin exceeded its all-time high of over $73,000 early Thursday.

The cryptocurrency’s latest rally follows the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) January 2024 approval of nearly a dozen spot bitcoin ETF applicants, prompting the cryptocurrency’s price to surge.

“As of March 13, Bitcoin is up 65.4% and Ether is up 70.2% in 2024,” Chainalysis claims.

Chainalysis notes that the SEC’s spot bitcoin ETF approval may encourage more institutions to invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, potentially boosting the industry’s growth.

“If these trends continue, we may see gains more in line with those we saw in 2021,” the report reads.