The crypto industry, much like the finance industry, is a very competitive one. Although the most popular cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), are US-based, Asia is pushing hard to become a leading competitor with projects like TRON (TRX), VeChain (VET), and NEO. As of February 2025, US crypto projects are still outperforming their Asian competitors in both market capitalization and institutional backing. What this means is that investors and businesses prefer US cryptos over any other options.
One way to compare the two markets is to look at the fundamentals. How good and innovative are the technologies upon which crypto projects are developed? In the US, Ethereum is making waves with its Ethereum 2.0, a project that is meant to help it scale up even further with minimal energy consumption. It also has multiple Layer-2 solutions like Arbitrum and Optimism to make transactions much cheaper and faster.
Solana is another project following in the steps of Ethereum 2.0. Its Layer-2 project, Solaxy, has raised over $19 million in its presale, showing that US investors will always go for crypto picks with big growth potential.
Meanwhile, apart from TRON, Asian crypto projects like NEO and ICON are still struggling to gain momentum in Asia, let alone globally. Some of the challenges these projects face include scalability, interoperability (exchanging data between platforms), security, and regulatory compliance.
China, for example, has been tough on crypto for over a decade. In 2013, it banned all banks from carrying out crypto transactions. In 2017, it prohibited Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). And finally, in 2021, it declared that all things crypto be illegal. Since then, developers have had to move to crypto-friendly countries like Singapore to mine or trade cryptos. For investors, these are red flags, which is why they are yet to be widely adopted in the region.
On the contrary, US cryptos have institutional and government backing. For example, the world's largest asset manager, Blackrock, has Bitcoin-related investment products for its investors. This is a major endorsement of the US crypto from an industry giant that is respected globally.
Also, in January 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs). Then, early in February 2025, President Trump signed an executive order for the creation of a sovereign wealth fund that has sparked a lot of speculations as to whether the US will finally move to invest in Bitcoin. All of these are green flags that motivate investors to gravitate towards US cryptos over any other.
Looking at the numbers according to CoinMarketCap, 80% of the top 10 cryptos by market cap are US-based. Bitcoin alone holds a 60% dominance and a whopping US$1.9 trillion in market cap. Bitcoin is clearly the leader of the crypto space, followed by Ethereum, with a 10% dominance. Asian cryptos TRON, VeChain, and NEO rank 10th, 40th, and 89th, respectively, on the same chart among all cryptos. Whichever way you look at it, US cryptos outpace Asian cryptos.
