Japan and Korea developing a strong interest in XRP

• South Korea and Japan have seen the highest amount of Google searches focused on XRP in the world.
• Both countries' banks have been collaborating with Ripple for years, and they promoted the coin.
• Interest in Ripple seems to be surging all over the world, which is also true for altcoins, in general.

A research team from Blockchain Center recently created a map that highlights the interest in digital currencies around the world. The map has revealed several interesting pieces of information, such as the fact that the interest in altcoins is at its highest in Venezuela (75%), followed by Japan (68.4%), South Korea (68%), Serbia (67.9%), Russia (66.6%), and Ukraine (66%).

However, the report also revealed that interest in one coin exceeds most others, and in very specific locations.

Interest in altcoins on the rise

According to Blockchain Center, there is a huge interest in XRP across the world. The company used information from Google Trends to determine which regions are Googling XRP the most, noting that a huge amount of interest in the coin emerged in two specific countries — South Korea and Japan.

In fact, in these areas, interest in XRP even exceeded interest in ETH. In South Korea, interest in XRP recorded 39%, while interest in ETH only 34%. The situation is similar in Japan, where XRP attracted 32%, while ETH only has 26%.

Other countries with a massive interest in XRP, specifically, include Ireland, Slovenia, and Australia.

Meanwhile, Kenya, one of the regions in Africa with the biggest crypto usage, seems to be focusing on Bitcoin. In fact, researchers say that this is the region with the higher percentage of Bitcoin maximalist on a global level.

This statement was confirmed by the fact that 94.7% of crypto searches revolved around Bitcoin. Nigeria is not far behind, either, with 89.4%, while South Africa sits right below that, at 89%. On a global scale, however, Bitcoin maximalists are also concentrated in South America, with the highest percentage being in Brazil (92.6%), Chile (89.8%), and Ecuador (89.4%).

Ripple and XRP are well-established in Japan and Korea

The fact that Ripple is so sought after in Japan and Korea is not really that surprising. after all, Ripple did report that some of the top Korean banks were after its payment solutions as far back as in 2017. In other words, the interest in the coin and the company is hardly new.

As for Japan, its SBI Holdings, which is a highly-respected firm in the country, supported Ripple and drove XRP adoption for a while now. Some examples include the creation of SBIVC Exchange, the MoneyTap payment solution, and SBI-Ripple Asia.

Although, despite all of these efforts, some reports from Japan suggest that Bitcoin is taking the lead away from XRP once again.

Source: invezz.com