> To calculate the geographic profile of crypto flows, the entity-to-entity data are complemented by the geographic distribution of app usage of the respective exchange or the web traffic of a crypto exchange’s website. For example, if 56% of usage of the app of a specific exchange originates from the US, 56% of all crypto in- and outflows to this exchange are allocated to the US. By aggregating over all crypto exchanges, bilateral cross-country data are obtained.
> ...
>  Figure A.2 in the Annex provides graphical evidence to affirm the accuracy of the
approximated flows. Clearly, the pseudo-anonymity of the ledgers implies that a comprehensive attribution of transactions to users is impossible, such that a mapping of flows to countries will always remain an approximation. Even so, our measure of cross-border flows is tightly linked to the number of crypto exchange users at the country-level

Page 6+. There is more text explaining this.

I haven't had a great experience with btcmaps.  More often than not the business stopped accepting, yet the page was not up to date.

I guess for tether it's easy to request the numbers with Paolo. But for BTC, much harder indeed. Maybe based on some heuristic using some big centralised services? Didn't check methodology.

I don't see how those numbers can be real, how are they tracking that? Anyway btcmap.org gives a more interesting view imo, even though it's a different thing.

88b0c423eb

And why are the numerical analysis not clearly stated?

Lazy_AMA

Our analysis points to cryptoassets also being used as a transactional medium. This

is most apparent for stablecoins and low-value BTC payments. Higher opportunity costs

of fiat currency usage, such as high inflation, spur bilateral cross-border transactions in

both unbacked cryptoassets and stablecoins. Likewise, greater economic activity within

both sender and receiver countries is often linked to increased crypto flows in most cases.

Moreover, high costs of remittance payments through traditional financial intermediaries

are associated with significantly larger cross-border flows in stablecoins and low-value

BTC payments from advanced economies to emerging market and developing markets.

Finally, on the efficacy of capital flow management measures (CFMs) governing crossborder transactions, our analysis suggests that CFMs targeting the reduction of outflows

from the sender country and the limitation of inflows into the recipient country have

little impact on crypto flows. Indeed, CFMs may even correlate with an increase in

cross-border flows of some cryptoassets, hinting at circumvention.

The Korean government is a huge believer in CFMs (cfr. Kimchi Premium).

Sad to say, they are also pretty good at it.

Not sure about their methodology to get the numbers, but comparing the BTC and USDT flows is quite visual. Russia seems to have a lot of arrows pointing its way. South America clearly prefers USDT over Bitcoin.

bitcoin

> Our analysis points to cryptoassets also being used as a transactional medium. This
is most apparent for stablecoins and low-value BTC payments. Higher opportunity costs
of fiat currency usage, such as high inflation, spur bilateral cross-border transactions in
both unbacked cryptoassets and stablecoins. Likewise, greater economic activity within
both sender and receiver countries is often linked to increased crypto flows in most cases.
Moreover, high costs of remittance payments through traditional financial intermediaries
are associated with significantly larger cross-border flows in stablecoins and low-value
BTC payments from advanced economies to emerging market and developing markets.

> Finally, on the efficacy of capital flow management measures (CFMs) governing crossborder transactions, our analysis suggests that CFMs targeting the reduction of outflows
from the sender country and the limitation of inflows into the recipient country have
little impact on crypto flows. Indeed, CFMs may even correlate with an increase in
cross-border flows of some cryptoassets, hinting at circumvention.

The Korean government is a huge believer in CFMs (cfr. Kimchi Premium). 
Sad to say, they are also pretty good at it.

Not sure about their methodology to get the numbers, but comparing the BTC and USDT flows is quite visual. Russia seems to have a lot of arrows pointing its way. South America clearly prefers USDT over Bitcoin.

![](https://m.stacker.news/91081)