The Philippines has become the global hotspot for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) ownership, a report from Australian independent comparison platform and information service Finder showed.
In a report released on Wednesday, Finder said Pinoys are much more likely to own NFTs—unique, non-interchangeable units of data stored in a digital token—than their global counterparts.
NFTs are usually associated with art, videos, audio, and other digital files. The most popular NFT in the Philippines are in the form of in-game assets.
The survey revealed that 32 percent of Filipino internet users own NFTs, almost triple than that of the global average of 11.7 percent. It ranks the first out of 20 countries surveyed for NFT adoption.
Thailand ranked second on the list with 27 percent, followed by Malaysia at 24 percent, the United Arab Emirates at 23 percent, and Vietnam at 17 percent.
Since the start of 2021, NFTs have become popular in the Philippines thanks to play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity. Currently, the Philippines has the highest number of daily Axie players in the world.
Finder believes that NFT adoption in the Philippines is still its nascency and it expects the number of NFT holders in the country to continue to rise.
“It’s still very early days for NFTs in the Philippines. Fifty-one percent of Filipino internet users currently know what NFTs are and we expect adoption to grow with awareness,” the report read.
Finder expects adoption to climb, with 9.5 percent of internet users planning to own NFTs in the future. That means the adoption rate will hit 41.5 percent—still a “conservative forecast.”
“Even with countries like Nigeria and Peru set to see NFT adoption increase by 22 and 15 percentage points respectively, they won’t come close to the Philippines rate of adoption,” the report read.