UAE takes 5th place in the The Henley Crypto Adoption Index 2025 among the countries with the highest crypto adoption. Ranked number was Singapore, followed by Hong Kong, USA and Switzerland in 4th place.
Interstingly when it comes to public adoption of crypto USA ranked number one followed immediately by the UAE. Public Adoption measures the level of awareness, interest, and engagement with cryptocurrencies in the general population. It includes indicators such as a binary adoption presence score, a continuous benchmarked score for the absolute number of crypto users, and Google search interest related to cryptocurrencies. Higher public adoption indicates a more crypto-friendly environment.
In terms of infrastructure adoption which assesses the technological foundations for crypto transactions and exchanges. This parameter includes the number of crypto ATMs, integration with local banks, the presence of digital asset exchanges, and the number of businesses accepting crypto as payment, the UAE despite its large number of regulated crypto exchanges, and the onset of banks entering the crypto space, ranked 12th, with Hong Kong, Monaco, and Switzerland taking the first three spaces.
Despite this UAE ranked 4th when it came to innovation and Technology, which gauges a country’s commitment to fostering advancement in the crypto space. This parameter considers the number of government-backed initiatives and cryptocurrency-related start-ups.
Despite as well the leadership the UAE has taken in respects to virtual asset regulation, it came in 8th on the Henley crypto index. Interestingly Australia came in first place, even though this year the USA seemed to have been leading in terms of crypto regulatory policies. In the index USA came in 7th.
The only ranking that UAE came in as first was crypto tax friendliness, but this is about to change after the UAE recently formalized its participation in the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework by signing the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement, committing to automatic exchange of crypto-asset tax data with jurisdictions worldwide. The CARF ( Crypto Asset Regulatory Framework) regime in the UAE is to become effective in 2027, with the first exchanges of information scheduled for 2028.
Concurrently in Henley’s Crypto Wealth report, it estimated that the total number of users owning crypto worldwide to be 590 million — around 7.4% of the approximate 8 billion global population and up 5% year-over-year. Bitcoin BTC -0.01% holders are estimated at 295 million of this figure — up 7% year-over-year.
Finally the report, claims that of the 36 billionaires created in crypto ,up 29% year-over-year ,17 come from bitcoin wealth following a 55% annual growth rate in what it describes as a “historic” wealth boom.
