How to develop the Asian cryptocurrency market? An article analyzing the differences between Asian countries, user behavior and market characteristics

Author: Techub Selected Compilation

Written by: JE Labs

Compiled by: Glendon, Techub News

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 among Asian countries in terms of market environment, regulatory policies, and user behavior, so 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 are highly dependent on these exchanges for transactions. They are also the main platforms for discovering new projects.

Market driving factors

• Demand for financial inclusion: In regions with underdeveloped financial infrastructure such as Indonesia and Vietnam, crypto assets have become a key tool for achieving inclusive finance;

• Young investors and high-yield preferences: Young people in Asia have a higher risk tolerance, which has driven the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) and Meme coins;

• Regulatory differences: Different regulations have led to differentiated adoption rates. For example, mainland China and South Korea have adopted strict regulations and supervision, while Hong Kong, China and Singapore have implemented cryptocurrency-friendly policies.

Future trend prediction

First, the compliance process is accelerated. As Hong Kong, China and Singapore become compliant crypto asset centers, it will undoubtedly promote the transparency of the entire Asian market. Secondly, clearer supervision 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 gaming and social finance.

User Behavior Preferences

Airdrop: Analysis of Asian User Behavior

After the airdrop, most Asian traders tended to engage in short-term arbitrage, that is, selling the tokens quickly after they were unlocked, resulting in large price fluctuations for the token. Their airdrop information sources are mainly community-driven, focusing on 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 amounts of funds to interact with multiple wallets to increase the chance of an airdrop; 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, where the GMT+8 time zone (Asia) tends to see the earliest selling pressure.

Meme trading: Asian users' speculative frenzy

As mentioned earlier, Asian cryptocurrency traders are highly dependent on KOLs and community-driven, and are easily affected by FOMO (fear of missing out). Therefore, if a meme coin becomes popular, these investors’ funds will quickly pour into it, pushing up the token price in the short term. During 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 by following community trends.

According to the data, Asia is the largest market for GMGN (a website that combines Meme coin data dashboard 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.

Main Market Analysis

China: A highly dynamic but regulated market

Despite stringent 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 are more dependent on private communities (such as VIP paid groups) and cryptocurrency KOL recommendations, which in turn creates a herd effect.

South Korea: A highly regulated, transaction-driven market

South Korea's cryptocurrency trading volume ranks among the highest in the world, and it was once known as the "cryptocurrency trading powerhouse". 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 have a low level 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 coin, which has attracted a large number of Korean investors.

In terms of regulation, South Korea passed the first crypto asset regulatory framework, the Virtual Asset User Protection Act, in July 2024. The act imposes stricter requirements on digital asset exchanges. Crypto exchanges are required to store at least 80% of user deposits in cold wallets to isolate user deposits from the exchange's own funds. In addition, exchanges must 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 volatility in token listings and rules for entry by institutional investors in 2025. South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) has announced that it will release comprehensive crypto asset investment guidelines by the third quarter of this year to allow institutional investors to invest in crypto assets. The guidelines 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. Strict regulations and institutional dominance of the market have reduced speculative behavior among Japanese investors. 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).

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, mainly preferring to invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The country is dominated by local exchanges, with the largest cryptocurrency exchange, Bitkub, holding over 70% of the market share.

In terms of regulation, Thailand holds 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 also plans to launch a cryptocurrency regulatory sandbox program in Phuket in October 2025, which will focus on the application of stablecoins.

Malaysia: A market driven by institutional investors

Under Malaysia's strict regulatory laws, all cryptocurrency activities are required to obtain official permission. Among the country's investors, high net worth and institutional investors dominate, and the latter also prefer Bitcoin, stablecoins and DeFi markets. The main exchanges in the country are Luno (a regulated local exchange) and Binance.

Asia Crypto Markets Comparison by JE Labs

Key GTM Strategies

The Go-To-Market (GTM) approach is a business strategy that plans how a company will bring 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, localize narratives and 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).

Secondly, in terms of regional ecosystem integration, Southeast Asia, South Korea, and Japan have a high acceptance of GameFi and NFT, making them ideal locations for gaming 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 customers (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 great influence, and cooperation can enhance credibility and combine tweets, community marketing and KOL partnerships to accurately target users.

Analysis of selected Asian countries and how to enter the Asian market

China: Precise positioning and private domain traffic growth

• Use Hong Kong as a compliance gateway to connect the global and mainland markets;

• Cooperate with KOLs and combine the traffic of WeChat communities to increase influence.

South Korea: Transaction driven, CEX is the key

• Being listed on local CEX (especially Upbit) will be a game changer and directly affect market trust;

• Build communities on KakaoTalk and Telegram, and work with KOLs to increase project visibility;

• Media exposure is more important than community management, as the former can improve credibility.

Japan: User experience and institutional preference are the main factors

• 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;

• Cooperate with Web3 institutions such as Bitget Wallet to reach target users.

Southeast Asia: DeFi and GameFi have great potential

• Indonesia: P2E and an intense viral growth strategy based on airdrops worked best.

• Vietnam: A well-developed Web3 gaming ecosystem, ideal for further expansion of GameFi.

• Thailand: Transparent policies, abundant DeFi opportunities, suitable for localized promotion.

• Philippines: The token economy is highly integrated with gaming and pop culture, leading to a high adoption rate of NFTs.

• Malaysia: DeFi adoption is continuing to grow, and the stablecoin and lending markets have great potential.

In summary, if you want to expand into the Asian market, project issuers must anchor the correct target market and define ICP. The key lies in accurately implementing 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, 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 needs to be made clear that in the context of the generally long life cycle of Web3 projects, project parties can retain users far better by building long-term and effective community relationships than by short-term speculation.