Ukraine took 7th place among 117 countries in the world in the new Global Crypto Adoption Index 2026 of the analytical company Chainalysis and became the European country with the highest rating, according to the data analysis carried out by the analytical center Experts Club.
The study by Chainalysis was published on September 23, 2026 and covers the period from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Unlike ratings that are based solely on the value of cryptoassets owned by the population or on trade turnover, the index tries to assess the real distribution of digital assets in the country's economy.
The top twenty of the rating were: 1. Brazil, 2. USA, 3. Nigeria, 4. Japan, 5. South Korea, 6. India, 7. Ukraine, 8. Thailand, 9. South Africa, 10. Canada, 11. Mexico, 12. China, 13. Germany, 14. Indonesia, 15. Australia, 16. Russia, 17. Great Britain, 18. Vietnam, 19. Philippines, and 20. Turkey.
Thus, Ukraine surpassed all European countries in the general index. Germany took 13th place, Russia - 16th, Great Britain - 17th, Turkey - 20th.
At the same time, not only the final position of Ukraine, but also the structure of indicators is particularly interesting. The country ranks 8th in the world in terms of aggregate flows of funds to crypto services, 8th in the volume of crypto assets on balance sheets, 6th in domestic P2P operations, and 6th in cross-border cryptocurrency flows.
According to the Experts Club, it is this structure that makes the Ukrainian result more indicative than just a high position in the overall rating. Ukraine does not depend on one segment of the crypto market, but is included in the top ten for all four components of the index.
"Ukraine remains one of the few countries where the high level of use of cryptocurrencies has a complex nature. We simultaneously see large flows through services, significant asset balances, an active P2P segment and cross-border transactions. This indicates that cryptocurrency for Ukrainians has long ceased to be only a speculative tool and partially fulfills the functions of savings, money transfers and alternative payment infrastructure," says the founder of the Experts Club analytical center Maksym Urakin.
In 2026, Chainalysis significantly changed the rating methodology. Now countries are compared according to four blocks: inflows of funds to centralized exchanges, DeFi protocols and other crypto services; internal transfers between personal wallets; cross-border operations; as well as crypto-assets on user balances. A total of 117 countries were analyzed. To compare economies of different scales, indicators are adjusted for purchasing power, after which they are normalized, and the final score is calculated as the geometric mean of four components.
Therefore, mechanical comparison of Ukraine's position with previous years should be done with caution. In 2023, the country ranked 5th in the old version of the Global Crypto Adoption Index, in 2024 - 6th, and in 2025 - 8th. In 2026, Ukraine moved up one position to 7th place, but a change in methodology means that this is not a direct improvement of the same indicator.
At the same time, Chainalysis' additional ranking for 2025, adjusted solely for population, placed Ukraine in first place in the world, ahead of Moldova, Georgia, Jordan and Hong Kong. This indicated an extremely high intensity of use of cryptocurrencies relative to the number of inhabitants of the country.
Previous studies also indicated the rapid growth of the Ukrainian crypto market. For the period from July 2024 to June 2025, Chainalysis estimated Ukraine-related cryptocurrency flows at approximately $206.3 billion, which was 52% more than in the previous comparable period. At that time, Ukraine was among the largest cryptoeconomies in Europe, along with Great Britain, Germany and France.
The first place of Brazil also illustrates the specificity of the new methodology. The country does not lead in any of the four individual indicators, but it is in the top four in each of them: it ranks second in cross-border transactions, third in aggregate flows and domestic P2P sector and fourth in balances.
Chainalysis estimates the size of the Brazilian crypto-economy at $252.5 billion. in total flows and balances, but only 20th in domestic P2P transactions and 11th in cross-border transfers.
Nigeria shows the opposite pattern: the country ranks only 18th in total flows and balances, but ranks first in the world in both P2P and cross-border cryptocurrency activity. As a result, it took the third position in the overall rating.
Against this background, Ukraine looks like a kind of intermediate model between a large investment market and a mass payment crypto-economy: the country has high indicators both in terms of the storage and movement of capital through services, and in terms of transactions directly between users.
Another result of the Chainalysis study, which the Experts Club draws attention to, is the stability of the crypto-currency economy during a sharp drop in market prices prices.
Over the 12 months under review, the total capitalization of the crypto market decreased by approximately 50%, or by $2.1 trillion, but the volume of measured cryptoeconomic activity decreased by only 1.6% — from $9.5 trillion to $9.4 trillion.
This means that the use of digital assets becomes less dependent on fluctuations in quotations.
Payment destinations have grown especially noticeably. The volume of domestic P2P transfers increased by 302.9% — from $56.8 billion to $228.7 billion, and cross-border operations in stablecoins increased by 77.5% — from $124.2 billion to $220.3 billion. The average size of an international transfer in stablecoins was about $3 thousand.
About 96% of domestic P2P circulation on a global scale already accounts for stablecoins. At the same time, the volume of stablecoins on blockchain balance sheets during the market decline remained relatively stable — in the range of $98–109 billion, while the value of the rest of the digital assets decreased significantly.
Experts Club notes that these global indicators cannot be automatically transferred directly to Ukraine, since Chainalysis does not provide the same detailed structure of Ukrainian operations in the open part of the study. However, Ukraine's 6th place in both P2P flows and cross-border flows indicates that the development of the payment application of cryptocurrencies is particularly important for the Ukrainian market.
"The next stage of the crypto market is not a question of how much Bitcoin will cost. Much more important is whether digital assets are transformed into an infrastructure for settlement, savings and international money movement. Chainalysis data shows that such a transition is already happening. For Ukraine, where cross-border financial ties are extremely large, this is of particular importance," Urakin notes.
At the same time, the high level of actual use of digital assets is still ahead of the completion of the formation of the regulatory system in Ukraine.
The draft law No. 10225-d, which regulates the circulation of virtual assets and their taxation, was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada as a basis on September 3, 2025. As of September 25, 2026, the official parliamentary card indicates that the document is being readied for second reading. On September 1 of this year, it was again included in the agenda of the Verkhovna Rada.
According to the Experts Club, the combination of one of the world's highest actual crypto activities with incomplete regulation is both an opportunity and a risk at the same time.
On the one hand, the already formed market gives Ukraine a potential base for the development of regulated crypto services, international settlements, fintech, blockchain developments and new financial products. On the other hand, the lack of final rules complicates taxation, investor protection, and the integration of crypto operations into the official financial sector.
"Ukraine's seventh place in the world is primarily an indicator of already existing demand. The state does not need to artificially create a crypto market, it already exists. The task is to bring the maximum possible part of this activity into a transparent legal field, without destroying competitive advantages through excessive regulation," Urakin believes.
The Experts Club also draws attention to the fact that the high level of cryptocurrencies in itself is not an indicator of a country's wealth or the development of its financial system. In different economies, the reasons for the high position are fundamentally different: in the USA institutional capital plays a significant role, in Nigeria - P2P and international transfers, in Brazil - a combination of different channels, and in Ukraine - a high intensity of use of digital assets in several segments at once.
Therefore, the key conclusion of the rating for Ukraine is not so much the ranking of the 7th place in the world and the first among European countries, but the stability and diversification of cryptocurrency activity even in the face of war and global market decline.
Original source: Chainalysis, 2026 Global Crypto Adoption Index, published on September 23, 2026. Global Crypto Adoption Index 2026
