Emerging markets accounted for 77% of Binance users in 2026, up from 49% in 2020, as users in these countries increasingly used the exchange for savings, payments and access to investments, the exchange said.
Binance Research’s latest report frames crypto adoption as a financial access story rather than a business story. Binance said that 83% of users who engage with two or more products on the platform are based in emerging markets, while users in these markets have savings rates more than twice those of users in developed markets.
About 36% of Binance users from emerging markets with balances of at least $10 hold at least half of their portfolio in stablecoins, according to the report, which calls this trend “consistent with savings-driven usage.” Globally, 28% of users reach this threshold, compared to 4% in 2020.
Data indicates growing use of crypto platforms as replacement financial infrastructure in markets where banking access remains limited.
According to the World Bank, 1.3 billion adults still do not have access to financial services, while 900 million unbanked adults own a cell phone and 530 million have a smartphone.
Binance said 4.7 billion adults do not have access to credit or loans, 3.6 billion adults in low- and middle-income countries do not use digital payments or cards, and 1.4 billion savers in these countries earn no interest on their deposits.
Stablecoins are at the heart of the debate. Binance said transfers on high-performance networks can cost as little as $0.0001 and settle almost instantly, compared to a minimum of $20 for cross-border SWIFT transactions. The World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide database places the global average cost of remittances above the UN target of less than 3%.
In fact, stablecoins are increasingly being used in emerging markets for remittances, savings and cross-border trade, while drawing warnings from Moody’s, the IMF and other institutions about risks to monetary sovereignty and financial resilience.
Data from the Brazilian tax authority, for example, showed that stablecoins account for 90% of the country’s crypto volume.
