The cryptocurrency market in Malaysia has come a long way since we first started closely monitoring it. From the cautious optimism of 2021 to the dynamic landscape of 2024, Malaysians’ approach to crypto assets has transformed in more ways than one.
In 2021, Malaysia’s cryptocurrency scene was still finding its footing with a small but burgeoning community of investors and a growing curiosity about its potential and validity. Fast forward to 2024, and the ecosystem has matured significantly, with many more Malaysians now on board with cryptocurrency ownership and actively trading on various platforms and exchanges.
Let’s have a look at how Malaysia’s cryptocurrency landscape has evolved over the years, and how the behaviour of Malaysians with regards to crypto has changed in turn.
Looking at the trends surrounding the awareness and familiarity towards cryptocurrency over the last 5 years, we see that there has been an overall rise in awareness and familiarity from 2019 to 2024. While the majority of the population has been aware of cryptocurrency since the start of our study, the percentage of familiar people has grown exponentially, going from just 10% in 2019 to as much as 57% in 2024. This would suggest that cryptocurrency has become part of the mainstream market at this point instead of just being a niche investment area. More Malaysians are now putting more effort into understanding and learning how the market works.
Noteworthy, we also see an all-time high surge in 3Q 2024 for both awareness and familiarity, peaking at 92% and 57% respectively. The quarter was a peak period for Bitcoin as it was touching almost the $100,000 mark and is known as the world’s biggest cryptocurrency raising over 40% since 5 November 2024. This garnered a substantial amount of attention and topics revolved heavily around Bitcoin; which later influenced the total number of Bitcoin and Altcoins owners in Malaysia to increase.
That being said, the overall percentage of Malaysians who own cryptocurrency has also had an increase over the past five years. Having said that, there are slight dip in some quarters between 2020 and 2022, while the end of 2024 saw the highest rate of cryptocurrency ownership at 60%, a threefold increase from the same period in 2021.
While the status of cryptocurrency is not fully recognised as a legal tender in Malaysia, the growing number of owners can be attributed to global news and trends that have piqued interest in digital assets, such as the Bitcoin event mentioned above. As more international developments unfold, many Malaysians are motivated to explore cryptocurrency as a viable investment option. This is in line with the increasing familiarity that we saw and supports the notion that cryptocurrency is now a mainstream asset that the majority of the population would at least consider investing in.
The shift in perspective is also pertinent to the country’s digitalisation prospect, whereby the government is actively exploring the possibility of drafting policies aimed at recognising cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Such moves signal a potential legitimisation of the market, which could further bolster confidence among investors and contribute to the forecasted increase in Malaysian cryptocurrency ownership to around 4.65 million by 2025.
When it comes to the different types of cryptocurrency, we see that Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin have been the two most commonly owned forms of cryptocurrency throughout the years, except for Ripple (XRP) having a surge in 3Q2024 and experiencing more ownership than Bitcoin but not Bitcoin Cash during that period.
Another notable entry is Solana which has gained some popularity amongst Malaysians and reached 10% ownership in 4Q2024. Solana has been recently tracked by us as we noticed they have gained significant popularity and according to Bitwise report, they are projected to potentially capture 11% of global blockchain users growing 30x by 2030.
We also had a look at the behaviour of Malaysians allocating their money/savings before they proceed to invest in cryptocurrency. From 2021 to 2024, there has been a shift in behaviour towards buyers being more willing to put in one lump sum of money to buy cryptocurrency. On the other hand, cryptocurrency owners are now less likely to have money ready in their accounts to buy whenever they want to compared to the years 2021-2023. Overall, cryptocurrency is still a relatively significant asset, with around 40% of owners setting aside money every month to buy.
In 2024, we also started to see a larger difference between the behaviours of PMEB and non-PMEB buyers when it comes to their investment allocation. PMEB buyers were more likely to have money ready in their account to buy whenever they wanted to, while non-PMEB buyers preferred to allocate a lump sum of money aside every month for them to buy cryptocurrency. This illustrates the varying investing styles of Malaysians based on their financial capabilities and reflects their consciousness in making smart investments.
When it comes to the number of transactions that cryptocurrency owners conduct in a month, we see that throughout the years, people who make transactions every day have generally been the biggest group out of all the cryptocurrency owners, holding on average above 20%. It’s also worth noting that as of 2024, PMEB cryptocurrency owners conducted over 40% more monthly transactions than non-PMEB owners on average. In fact, if we take a look closer at the individual behaviours of the PMEB and non-PMEB groups in 2024, we find that the biggest group of PMEB owners makes transactions once a week, while the biggest group of Non-PMEB owners is those who make transactions every day.
Coming to the platforms and exchanges that are used by Malaysians to trade cryptocurrency, we find that Luno is currently the most popular platform for trading at a 43% usage rate, far ahead of the 2nd most popular option of eToro which stands at 25%. This speaks to the convenience of Luno as a platform since it offers a mobile app which focuses solely on the exchange of cryptocurrency as opposed to a platform like eToro which can also be used for trading stocks. It could also suggest that buyers find Luno’s user interface easier to use than other platforms, even if those other platforms only focus on cryptocurrency trading. Completing the top 5 crypto platforms in Malaysia are Sinergy, MX Exchange, and Bitpanda respectively.
Finally, we come to the different sources that Malaysians get their cryptocurrency news from and how often they consult those sources. As of 2024, the vast majority of Malaysians claimed that they read up on cryptocurrency news quite often. Looking at the trend from 2021-2024, we see that more and more Malaysians have fallen into this category over the years, with 2024 having the highest percentage of Malaysians reading up on currency either often or all the time, as opposed to only sometimes or rarely/not at all.
Looking at which sources Malaysians use most often, it appears that ever since 2021, Malaysians have consistently gotten their cryptocurrency news from a wide range of different sources, with no particular source standing out far more than the others with the exception of “from friends” in 2022. However, in 2024 we saw that crypto exchange sites and crypto news sites are significantly more popular than before, leading at 33% while social media, telegram groups and online searches have declined in usage as news sources. However, the overall number of users for the aforementioned sources is still not too far behind the most popular options of crypto sites, with a diverse range of sources still being used by Malaysians as of last year.
As we go into 2025, it will be interesting to see whether cryptocurrency continues its bullish run and enjoys even more popularity, progressing even further from being a mainstream asset to something that the vast majority of Malaysians will buy into. This could be made even more likely if more user-friendly platforms similar to Luno become available for Malaysians to buy and trade cryptocurrency, or if it gets endorsed by public figures in Malaysia the way it has been in the USA.
Regardless of what happens, we will be sure to keep a close eye on the cryptocurrency landscape here in Malaysia. If you would like to dive deep with us, please contact us at theteam@oppotus.com