Research by app analytics and marketing platform App Radar has found 2021 was a red-letter year for cryptocurrency app downloads, with 82.9m made on Google Play alone.
This was up massively from 2020, where crypto apps were only downloaded 13.5m times. The most downloaded apps globally were Binance at 35.7m, Crypto.com at 19.7m, Coinbase with 16.1m, Blockchain with 3.3m and Voyager at 1.8m.
The App Radar insights team analysed the 2020 and 2021 Google Play store performance of 12 of the leading apps for storing and trading cryptocurrencies.
Of the 12 apps analysed, all of them together have almost 120m total lifetime downloads on Google Play, with almost 80m added last year alone. If such growth rates were to continue, the global android market could potentially almost 365m in total lifetime downloads by the end of 2022.
App Radar managing director and co-founder Thomas Kriebernegg said, “We’re getting closer and closer to crunch time for crypto apps. More people are taking investing and owning cryptos and NTFs more seriously, so the battle is on to be their preferred wallet or trading platform. And given the digital nature of crypto, the centre stage for that battle is people’s phones.
“Retaining customers is the difference between success and failure, customers can swap to your competitors in just a few taps. Features, usability and visibility in the marketplaces are critical to taking market share in Europe”
A recent report by Chainalysis found illicit addresses received $14bn in cryptocurrency deposits during 2021, which was almost twice the amount they collected in 2020.
