Consumers from countries in Africa, Asia, and South America were most likely to be an owner of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in 2025. This conclusion can be reached after combining ** different surveys from the Statista's Consumer Insights over the course of that year. Nearly one out of three respondents to Statista's survey in Nigeria, for instance, mentioned they either owned or use a digital coin, rather than *** out of 100 respondents in the United States. This is a significant change from a list that looks at the Bitcoin (BTC) trading volume in ** countries: There, the United States and Russia were said to have traded the highest amounts of this particular virtual coin. Nevertheless, African and Latin American countries are noticeable entries in that list too. Daily use, or an investment tool? The survey asked whether consumers either owned or used cryptocurrencies but does not specify their exact use or purpose. Some countries, however, are more likely to use digital currencies on a day-to-day basis. Nigeria increasingly uses mobile money operations to either pay in stores or to send money to family and friends. Polish consumers could buy several types of products with a cryptocurrency in 2019. Opposed to this is the country of Vietnam: Here, the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a payment method is forbidden. Owning some form of cryptocurrency in Vietnam as an investment is allowed, however. Which countries are more likely to invest in cryptocurrencies? Professional investors looking for a cryptocurrency-themed ETF were more often found in Europe than in the United or China, according to a survey in early 2020. Most of the largest crypto hedge fund managers with a location in Europe in 2020, were either from the United Kingdom or Switzerland - the country with the highest cryptocurrency adoption rate in Europe according to Statista's Global Consumer Survey. Whether this had changed by 2025 was not yet clear.

Bitcoin's blockchain size was close to reaching 5450 gigabytes in 2024, as the database saw exponential growth by nearly one gigabyte every few days. The Bitcoin blockchain contains a continuously growing and tamper-evident list of all Bitcoin transactions and records since its initial release in January 2009. Bitcoin has a set limit of 21 million coins, the last of which will be mined around 2140, according to a forecast made in 2017. Bitcoin mining: A somewhat uncharted world Despite interest in the topic, there are few accurate figures on how big Bitcoin mining is on a country-by-country basis. Bitcoin's design philosophy is at the heart of this. Created out of protest against governments and central banks, Bitcoin's blockchain effectively hides both the country of origin and the destination country within a (mining) transaction. Research involving IP addresses placed the United States as the world's most Bitcoin mining country in 2022 - but the source admits IP addresses can easily be manipulated using VPN. Note that mining figures are different from figures on Bitcoin trading: Africa and Latin America were more interested in buying and selling BTC than some of the world's developed economies. Bitcoin developments Bitcoin's trade volume slowed in the second quarter of 2023, after hitting a noticeable growth at the beginning of the year. The coin outperformed most of the market. Some attribute this to the announcement in June 203 that BlackRock filed for a Bitcoin ETF. This iShares Bitcoin Trust was to use Coinbase Custody as its custodian. Regulators in the United States had not yet approved any applications for spot ETFs on Bitcoin.

Graph and download economic data for Coinbase Bitcoin (CBBTCUSD) from 2014-12-01 to 2025-07-14 about cryptocurrency and USA.

Title:
The Invisible Art Market: Informal Networks, Symbolic Capital, and Market Activity in Latin America

DOI:
10.5281/zenodo.15383517

Creators:
Brown, Scott (University of Puerto Rico – Río Piedras, Professor of Finance)

Description:
This dataset supports the empirical analysis presented in “The Invisible Art Market: Informal Networks, Symbolic Capital, and Market Activity in Latin America.” The study investigates how weak institutional frameworks, symbolic capital, and informal networks shape national art market development, with a special focus on BRIC countries and Latin America.

The dataset integrates four key sources:

• Art Sales Data (2021–2024) across Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) compiled from Artprice and Art Basel reports.

• Macroeconomic indicators from the World Bank’s GDP data.

• Institutional quality metrics using the International Property Rights Index (IPRI) and V-Dem rule of law variables.

A regression analysis (replicable via the art_market_brics.py Python script) demonstrates that stronger property rights (IPRI) and higher GDP are statistically associated with increased national art sales, even in non-Western economies. The data and code comply with FAIR principles and are structured for open replication and policy use.

Files included:

• art_market_brics.py (Python code to replicate regression models)

• BRIC_Art_Sales_2021_2024.csv (manually extracted and cleaned auction turnover data)

• GDP.csv (World Bank GDP data 2021–2024)

• IPRI_Country_Tables_Manual.xlsx (Institutional property rights index data, 2024)

• vdem_variables_filtered_1996_onward.xlsx (Governance data on Rule of Law from V-Dem)

Keywords:
art market, cultural economics, symbolic capital, institutional economics, BRIC countries, Latin America, intellectual property rights, informal economy, governance, development policy, Hernando de Soto

Subjects:

• Economics and Econometrics

• Cultural Studies

• Development Studies

• Public Policy

• Law and Society

License:
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Language:
English

Version:
1.0

Publication Date:
2025-05-13

Publisher:
Zenodo

Funding:
None (institutionally unfunded, conducted at a public university under resource constraints)

Related Works:
This dataset underpins the paper:
Brown, S. M. (2025). The Invisible Art Market: Symbolic Capital, Informal Institutions, and Development Constraints in Latin America [Manuscript in preparation].