How to develop the Asian cryptocurrency market? An article analyzing the differences between Asian countries, user behavior and market characteristics
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In-depth analysis of the Asian crypto market landscape, understand the differences between Asian countries, user behavior, market characteristics and how to enter the Asian market in one article.
As the core region of the global cryptocurrency ecosystem, Asia accounts for 70% of the world's cryptocurrency liquidity and has 60% of the world's cryptocurrency users. However, there are significant differences between Asian countries in terms of market environment, regulatory policies and user behavior. Therefore, it is crucial to have a deep understanding of the characteristics of each country and region.
This article will deeply analyze the characteristics of the Asian market and provide a strategic guide for ecosystem builders who want to expand their business in the region. This article covers the following core modules: Asian market overview, user behavior preferences, major market analysis, key market entry strategies, specific Asian country analysis and how to successfully enter the Asian market.
Asian market overview
Market structure dominated by CEX
37.1% of the global centralized exchange (CEX) traffic comes from Asia, ranking first in the world; mainstream centralized exchanges such as Binance, OKX and Upbit constitute the core liquidity center. Asian users rely heavily on these exchanges for trading, and they are also the main platforms for discovering new projects.
Market driving factors
Financial inclusion demand: In regions with underdeveloped financial infrastructure such as Indonesia and Vietnam, crypto assets have become a key tool for achieving financial inclusion;
Young investors and high-yield preferences: Young Asians have a higher risk tolerance, which has driven the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) and Meme coins;
Regulatory differences: Different regulations form differentiated adoption rates, such as strict regulations and supervision in mainland China and South Korea, while Hong Kong and Singapore implement cryptocurrency-friendly policies.
Future trend forecast
First, the compliance process is accelerated. As Hong Kong and Singapore become compliant crypto asset centers, it will undoubtedly promote the transparency of the entire Asian market; secondly, regulatory clarity will attract traditional financial institutions to enter the market, thereby promoting the development of DeFi and RWA (real world assets) tokenization. In addition, the growing demand for cross-border payments, digital payments, and value storage scenarios will also promote the widespread use of stablecoins. In terms of the expansion of DeFi, GameFi, and SocialFi, the adoption rate of decentralized exchanges (DEX) and lending protocols is expected to continue to rise, and Southeast Asia has the opportunity to become the fastest growing region in Web3 games and social finance.
User behavior preferences
Airdrop: Asian user behavior analysis
After the airdrop, most Asian traders tend to engage in short-term arbitrage, that is, quickly sell the token after it is unlocked, which leads to large price fluctuations. Their airdrop information sources are mainly community-driven, concentrated in private community dissemination and sharing, such as WeChat, Telegram, Discord and X.
The trading behavior characteristics of these traders include frequent small transactions and rapid selling. Before the airdrop, traders will use small funds to interact with multiple wallets to increase the chance of airdrop; and within a few hours after the airdrop is released, the airdrop token will experience a surge in trading volume, and the token price will usually fall. This can be verified by the time zone effect, and the GMT+8 time zone (Asia) often has the earliest selling pressure.
Meme trading: Asian users' frenzy of speculation
As mentioned above, Asian cryptocurrency traders are highly dependent on KOLs and community-driven, and are easily affected by FOMO (fear of missing out) emotions. Therefore, if a meme coin becomes popular, these investors' funds will quickly flow into it, pushing up the token price in the short term. In this process, traders mostly implement highly speculative short-term strategies, and the trading logic revolves around the principle of "buy low and sell high". Common strategies include: early entry, rapid profit-taking, and swing trading that follows community trends.
From the data, Asia is the largest market for GMGN (a website that combines meme coin data dashboards and trading tools), and 19% of the platform's traffic comes from Chinese users, which also highlights the strong interest of Chinese investors in Solana meme coin trading.
Major Market Analysis
China: A highly active but regulated market
Despite strict policy restrictions, more than 59 million Chinese users still hold crypto assets; over-the-counter (OTC) trading remains active, and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region serves as a key gateway for capital inflows and outflows through stablecoins. At the same time, Chinese users have strong demand for high-yield products such as Curve and Aave, and the DeFi and DEX ecosystems are active. In terms of information dissemination, investors rely more on private communities (such as VIP paid groups) and cryptocurrency KOL recommendations, which in turn forms a herd effect.
South Korea: A strictly regulated transaction-driven market
South Korea's cryptocurrency trading volume ranks among the top in the world, and was once known as a "cryptocurrency trading power". Among them, Upbit Exchange has a market share of more than 80% in South Korea. South Korean investors have a clear preference for CEX transactions and a low degree of participation in DEX, but the NFT market is relatively active. It is worth mentioning that Meme coins and altcoins are extremely popular in South Korea, especially Solana Meme coins have attracted a large number of Korean investors.
In terms of supervision, South Korea passed the first crypto asset regulatory framework, the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, in July 2024. The bill imposes stricter requirements on digital asset exchanges. Crypto exchanges are required to store at least 80% of user deposits in cold wallets to achieve the isolation of user deposits from the exchange's own funds. In addition, exchanges must also entrust user cash deposits to local licensed banks for safekeeping and hold cryptocurrency reserves of the same amount and type as customer deposits.
On the other hand, South Korea will introduce a mechanism to limit the volatility of token listings and institutional investor access rules in 2025. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) of South Korea has announced that it will issue a comprehensive crypto asset investment guide by the third quarter of this year to allow institutional investors to invest in crypto assets. The guide will regulate cryptocurrency investments by institutional investors, listed companies and non-profit organizations, which also means that South Korea will lift the ban on institutional investors investing in crypto assets.
Japan: A compliance-driven long-term investment market
Unlike South Korea, Japanese investors strongly prefer Bitcoin, NFT markets and long-term investments. Due to strict regulation and institutional dominance of the market, Japanese investors' speculative behavior has decreased. In addition, cryptocurrency KOLs and communities also play an important role in Japan, especially NFT culture has been deeply integrated with local traditional culture (such as anime culture, etc.).
Thailand: A market with high cryptocurrency adoption and friendly regulation
Thailand's cryptocurrency penetration rate (the proportion of Thai cryptocurrency users in the total population) is as high as 21.96%, higher than Vietnam and Indonesia. The country once ranked tenth in the world in the global cryptocurrency adoption index. Thai investors have strong demand for DeFi and mainly tend to invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The country's local exchanges dominate, with the largest cryptocurrency exchange Bitkub accounting for more than 70% of the market share.
In terms of regulation, Thailand has a supportive and compliant attitude, including defining cryptocurrencies, regulating cryptocurrency exchanges, and legalizing stablecoins. The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has identified USDT and USDC as legal cryptocurrencies in March this year. In addition, Thailand plans to launch a cryptocurrency regulatory sandbox program in Phuket in October 2025, which will focus on stablecoin applications.
Malaysia: A market oriented towards institutional investors
Under Malaysia's strict regulatory laws, all cryptocurrency activities must be officially licensed. Among the country's investors, high net worth and institutional investors dominate, and the latter also prefer Bitcoin, stablecoins and DeFi markets. The country's main exchanges are Luno (a regulated local exchange) and Binance.
Key GTM strategies
The GTM (Go-To-Market) approach is a business strategy that aims to plan how a company brings its products or services to market and attract customers. The key for project issuers to successfully promote Web3 projects in the Asian market lies in precise localization strategies and community penetration.
First, localization is the key to opening up the Asian market. Since Asia is not a single market, but a complex of multiple cultures, languages, and regulatory environments, market entry strategies need to be tailored to the culture and regulatory environment of each country. For example, localized narratives use content that resonates with local users and is easy to spread. In terms of information dissemination, content localization is equally important, requiring precise translation and adjustment of information to suit the habits of local users. The social media channels are China (WeChat, Weibo), South Korea (KakaoTalk, Naver), Japan (Line, CoinPost), and Southeast Asia (TikTok).
Second, in terms of regional ecosystem integration, Southeast Asia, South Korea, and Japan have a high acceptance of GameFi and NFT, so they are ideal places for game and NFT-related projects; China is very suitable for fintech and DeFi applications, while Hong Kong, China and Singapore can act as compliance gateways. In addition, project issuers also need to segment users. Different markets require different ICPs (ideal customer profiles), such as institutional clients (B2B), retail investors (B2C), and developers (B2D).
Community-driven is the core way to gain user trust, including community-driven trust building and expanding market influence through KOLs:
Deep local integration: regular contact, active community participation, and long-term trust building;
Early user incentives: issuing NFT or airdrop incentives to maintain user stickiness and loyalty;
Continuous participation: organizing AMA, continuously producing content, and maintaining a high level of community activity.
Cooperate with KOLs: Local KOLs have a huge influence, and cooperation can enhance credibility and combine tweets, community marketing, and KOL partnerships to accurately target users.
Analysis of specific Asian countries and how to enter the Asian market
China: Accurate positioning and private domain traffic growth
Use Hong Kong as a compliance portal to connect the global and mainland markets;
Cooperate with KOLs to increase influence by combining the traffic of WeChat communities.
South Korea: Transaction-driven, CEX is the key
Listing on local CEX (especially Upbit) will change the rules of the game and directly affect market trust;
Build communities on KakaoTalk and Telegram, and work with KOLs to increase project awareness;
Media exposure is more important than community management, and the former can improve credibility.
Japan: User experience and institutional preference are the main ones
High net worth users prioritize UX/UI experience and local NFT culture over airdrops;
Use well-known media such as CoinDesk Japan and CoinPost to expand influence;
Work with Web3 institutions such as Bitget Wallet to reach target users.
Southeast Asia: DeFi and GameFi have great potential
Indonesia: P2E and fierce viral growth strategies based on airdrops work best.
Vietnam: A well-developed Web3 game ecosystem is an ideal choice for in-depth expansion of GameFi.
Thailand: Transparent policies, rich DeFi opportunities, suitable for localized promotion.
Philippines: The token economy is highly integrated with games and popular culture, resulting in a high adoption rate of NFTs.
Malaysia: DeFi adoption is continuing to grow, and the stablecoin and lending markets have great potential.
To sum up, if you want to expand into the Asian market, project issuers must anchor the right target market and define ICP. The key lies in the precise implementation of localization strategies and community penetration, and in-depth understanding of regulatory policy orientation and communication channels. For example, China, South Korea, Japan and Thailand are dominated by trading users, while Southeast Asia such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia are more suitable for DeFi, GameFi and P2E growth strategies, while Hong Kong and Singapore can serve as compliance portals and capital flow channels for projects. It should be made clear that in the context of the generally long life cycle of Web3 projects, project parties building long-term and effective community relationships can retain users far more than short-term speculation.
