Emerging-market users are treating crypto exchanges like banking apps, Binance says
One point three billion adults lack financial services, 4.7 billion lack credit, and 1.4 billion savers in low-income nations earn no deposit interest, Binance said.
By Francisco Rodrigues|Edited by Nikhilesh De May 9, 2026, 3:41 p.m. 2 min readMake preferred on
What to know:
- Emerging markets are driving crypto adoption, accounting for 77% of Binance users in 2026, Binance said in a report. Users treat exchanges as "shadow banks" for savings, payments, and investments.
- Crypto platforms fill a financial access gap. One point three billion adults lack financial services, 4.7 billion lack credit, and 1.4 billion savers in low-income nations earn no deposit interest, Binance said.
- Stablecoins are central, enabling low-cost ($0.0001) and instant remittances/savings, but institutions like Moody's warn of financial-resilience and monetary-sovereignty risks.
Emerging markets accounted for 77% of Binance users in 2026, up from 49% in 2020, as users in those 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 trading story. Binance said 83% of users engaging with two or more products on the platform are based in emerging markets, while users in those markets show savings rates more than twice as high as users in developed markets.
About 36% of emerging-market Binance users with balances of at least $10 hold at least half of their portfolio in stablecoins, according to the report, which points to the pattern as “consistent with savings-oriented usage.” Globally, 28% of users meet that threshold, up from 4% in 2020.
The data points to growing use of crypto platforms as substitute 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 those 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 with a minimum of $20 for cross-border SWIFT transactions. The World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide database puts the global average remittance cost above the UN target of less than 3%.
Stablecoins are, in fact, increasingly being used in emerging markets for remittances, savings and cross-border commerce, while also drawing warnings from Moody’s, the IMF and other institutions over monetary-sovereignty and financial-resilience risks.
Data from Brazil’s tax authority, for example, has shown stablecoins drive 90% of the country’s crypto volume.
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