Digital asset market growth shows RM21 billion traded in 2021

KUALA LUMPUR – Domestic digital asset markets has shown growth last year even though there were market uncertainties following the pandemic.

According to the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), almost RM21 billion in digital assets had been traded across four registered digital asset exchanges (DAXs) in 2021.

The SC said that investor interest caused the number of digital asset investment accounts to increase by nearly 300% from 190,000 in 2020 to 760,000 last year

In it’s Annual Report, the SC said that young investors, below ages of 35, make the majority of the segment. These investors make up 62% of the segment, with 470,000 total accounts held by the end of 2021.

Aside from that, the SC said it continued to facilitate the introduction of new digital assets traded on DAXs last year. In March 2021, the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) was approved as one of the accepted digital assets to trade. The other digital assets permissible for trade on DAXs include Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, and LiteCoin.

Furthermore, the report also stated that the digital investment management (DIM) segment grew its capital market offerings. It brought the total assets under management (AUM) to more than RM1 billion as at end of 2021.

“The increased retail interest in the equity market during the pandemic had also pushed digital brokers to new highs, gaining a retail market share of 5.45% with total number of accounts having risen by more than 50% to approximately 251,000 in 2021 compared to the 165,000 in 2020,” the SC said.

The DIM segment had also brought in the younger investors as more than 70% of the participating individual investors are below 35 years old. The SC added that this segment is particularly attractive to first-time investors.

“The emergence of spare change investing, where spare changes from investors’ purchases are rounded-up and invested into funds, has also allowed investors to begin investing with small investment amounts with ease,” it added.

In 2021, reports showed another DIM company being approved and licensed. This brings the number of current DIM companies in operation to eight.

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