Do you crypto?

VnExpress reports that a new survey found that Vietnam has the second-highest rate of cryptocurrency users in the world, after Nigeria.

The report, carried out by the global consumer data company Statista, says that 21% of Vietnamese respondents said that they used or owned a form of cryptocurrency in 2020. The figure for Nigeria was 32%.

The rest of the top five was filled out by the Philippines at 20% and Turkey and Peru, both at 16%.

According to Statista, the high usage rate in countries like Nigeria, Vietnam and the Philippines is due to the prominence of remittances sent from diasporas back to their home nations. Traditional bank and wire services are costly when transferring money internationally, and cryptocurrency exchanges targeted at overseas and workers and their families have been set up as an alternative.

There are currently about 580,000 Vietnamese working overseas, according to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

In other news related to remittances, Reuters recently reported that Saigon received US$6.1 billion in remittance payments in 2020, up 12% from 2019 and a record for the city. Overall, remittances to Vietnam hit US$15.7 billion last year, with Saigon continuing its role as a major recipient of such payments.

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