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 investment access, the exchange said.
Binance Research’s latest report frames crypto adoption as a financial access story rather than a trade 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 show savings rates more than double that of users in developed markets.
About 36% of new Binance users with a balance of at least $10 have at least half of their portfolio in stablecoins, according to the report, which points to the pattern as “consistent with savings-oriented use.” Globally, 28% of users meet this threshold, up from 4% in 2020.
The data points to growing use of crypto platforms as substitutes for financial infrastructure in markets where banking access remains limited.
The World Bank says 1.3 billion adults still lack access to financial services, while 900 million unbanked adults own a mobile phone and 530 million own a smartphone.
Binance said 4.7 billion adults lack 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 deposits.
Stablecoins are central to the argument. 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 puts global average remittance costs above the UN target of less than 3%.
Indeed, stablecoins are increasingly being used in emerging markets for money transfers, 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 Brazil’s tax authority, for example, has shown that stablecoins drive 90% of the country’s crypto volume.
