According to EAE Business School, the value of the transactions fell to 368 million euros in 2022.
A study published this Monday by EAE Business School indicates that the cryptocurrency sector slowed down in 2022. This has occurred after strong growth in the sector in 2020 worldwide, with a rise of 478%, followed by an increase of 45% in 2021.
The cryptocurrency market, says the report, entitled “The fintech industry, new trends in the financial sector”, has fallen by 6% in Spain, with 368 million euros in value of operations carried out in 2022. Said stagnation extended to other European countries, such as Germany, France, and the Netherlands, in the same percentages; meanwhile, in Russia, the use of digital currencies has fallen by 10%.
In non-European countries, however, between 2021 and 2022, the value of these transactions increased by 40% in Vietnam, followed by Brazil (37%, Mexico (34%), Indonesia (32%), and India (30%). Other statistics suggest that the leaders in the cryptocurrency market were the US, India, Japan, the United Kingdom, and South Korea.
One of the authors of the study, EAE Business School professor and Director of the Master in Management & STEM Dorina Nicoara-Popescu, explains what happened in the following terms:
“There have been several key elements in the evolution of the cryptocurrency and the Blockchain sector in the last year. The first has been the fall of Bitcoin, the dominant cryptocurrency, from $47,300 to $23,600 in 2022, which affected the entire market; secondly, the bankruptcy of the FTX exchange decreased confidence in this market because it had been one of the main cryptocurrency exchange providers, and it collapsed in November last year.”
Digital Payment Growth
The study, which analyzes the evolution of the fintech sector, also addresses the development of digital payment, which includes all companies that offer payment services through electronic devices without the need for a bank card, such as mobile payment, contactless, QR codes, or Click2Pay. In this sense, Spain ranked 13th in the world in 2022 by the volume of transactions carried out through digital payment, with a total of 70 million euros in 2022.
In fact, the report notes, “high interest” in integrated payments has continued to grow throughout 2022, covering a wide range of industries, from retail and e-commerce to gaming and shared mobility services.
Other Fintech Trends
EAE Business School points out that fintech companies offer a variety of financial services ranging from payments and electronic transfers to loans, financing, investment management, insurance, or cryptocurrencies. “Through the use of technology and access to information about potential customers, the business model employed by fintech allows the creation of more personalized products at a lower cost and, consequently, greater efficiency,” the study analyzes.
In alternative financing, crowdfunding is one of the most popular instruments. At the end of 2022, the countries that led the crowdfunding market by transaction value were the US (410 million euros) and Japan (146 million euros). Spain occupies the 12th position with 7.8 million euros.
By Audy Castaneda
