Recently, Bitget Research has published a report analyzing the structure and current landscape of crypto trading in Western Europe.
The report reveals that in this area there are currently one and a half million active crypto traders daily.
Although it is a very small percentage compared to the over 200 million inhabitants of the area, in absolute numbers it appears to be a significantly significant figure.
Summary
Bitget’s report data on crypto trading
The report also reveals that in this part of the European continent, large volumes of cryptocurrency exchange are generated, high levels of activity in the DeFi sector, but little P2P trading. Furthermore, European traders tend to have a responsible and regulated approach.
The number of active traders daily ranges from 1.2 to 1.5 million, with Germany and France leading the way.
Note that these are traders who are active daily, not occasional investors who only operate in the crypto markets sporadically.
Traders in Western Europe are generally well-educated, and on average they also tend to be particularly attentive to risk management.
Their trading strategy often involves a combination of futures contracts and spot trading, as well as investments in traditional assets.
On the other hand, however, they also appear to be well disposed towards decentralized projects, NFTs and Web3 platforms, with an active commitment in blockchain ecosystems like Solana.
Actually, most of the crypto activity in Western Europe seems to be focused on DeFi, while P2P exchange volumes are significantly low.
The peculiarities of Western Europe
In this area, characterized by developed economies and high levels of general education, the highest percentages of adoption of cryptocurrencies are measured globally.
For this reason, the importance of this area within the crypto sector is continuing to grow.
If Germany and France are the countries with the highest activity, since they are also the most populous ones, Austria recorded the fastest annual growth in the number of crypto traders, with a significant +70%. What is most surprising, however, is that in this particular ranking, Germany is in second place, with +69%.
In other Western European countries, growth is slower, between 15% and 20%.
It is worth noting that crypto activity in the European Union now benefits from a clearer level of compliance compared to other regions, and perhaps this is what has generated the boom of crypto traders.
In Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, futures trading prevails, while in other countries spot trading prevails.
Most European traders prefer centralized exchanges, with trading volumes on CEXs exceeding those of DEXs by 10 times.
Among decentralized platforms, PancakeSwap and Uniswap prevail, while the most used wallets are those of Coinbase, Metamask, Bitget, and TrustWallet.
The exchanges
In the last year, the overall traffic to centralized exchanges in this area has increased significantly, especially in Germany, Switzerland, and Poland. Germany and Switzerland have seen an increase of over 50% compared to the previous year, while in Poland it has been as much as 145%.
In France, the growth has been much more contained, and in Belgium there has even been a decrease of 6.8%.
Asset digital assets are mainly purchased on exchanges in Western Europe using fiat currency, while in other parts of the world, such as Southeast Asia, P2P transfers prevail instead.
Crypto trading trends according to Bitget’s report
One of the trends in Western Europe, in the crypto field, is the participation in decentralized projects, and a certain familiarity with DEX, NFT and Web3 platforms.
Emerging assets include Ordinals, NFTs, RWAs, DePin, and the Solana ecosystem, as well as memecoins. There is also interest in Manta Network and Ondo Finance, and on second and third level chains like CRO, FTM, and SUI.
According to Bitget Research, Germany and France will continue to be the nerve centers of the crypto sector in Western Europe, and interest in on-chain solutions, such as NFTs, DEXs, and blockchain games, will continue to increase.
Decentralized exchanges will meet the growing demand for on-chain transactions, and emerging centralized exchanges may gain even more adoption.
The success of Solana will also benefit crypto wallets that offer integration between different blockchain ecosystems.
The traders
The Bitget report outlines for Western Europe a typical trader with a high level of education, cautious and who prefers long-term investments.
It is worth noting that these traders generally also actively participate in online and offline forums, including for example AMAs (Ask Me Anything).
At this point, it is not surprising that they also generally attach great importance to legality, to the point of showing a medium interest in complying with Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations.
These are therefore traders who are generally conservative, carefully examine the market and tend to be loyal users. It should be emphasized that the report examines traders who are active on a daily basis, and not occasional ones.
