UAE saw 41% increase in crypto app downloads in 2024 — AppsFlyer

Data from app analytics platform AppsFlyer shows that cryptocurrency applications saw a sharp increase in adoption in the United Arab Emirates in 2024.

According to AppsFlyer, downloads of the top 49 crypto apps in the UAE reached 6.2 million in 2023. That jumped to 15 million in 2024, a 41% increase. 

Most of these downloads occurred in the second half of 2024, with crypto app installs exceeding 1 million per month in the final quarter. December saw the biggest surge, with 2.8 million downloads, AppsFlyer said.

AppsFlyer attributed the increase in adoption to several key developments in the cryptocurrency space.

UAE crypto app installs spiked to 2.8 million in December

On Nov. 6, 2024, Donald Trump won the United States presidential election. His victory was broadly perceived as a win for the crypto space, as Trump had promised to end the war on crypto and make the US the crypto capital of the world if elected. 

Shani Rosenfelder, the director of market insights at AppsFlyer, said that Trump emphasizing his pro-crypto stance played a role in the adoption of crypto apps:

“There has been a strong correlation between these market factors and the UAE’s crypto market momentum. Moreover, the outlook continues to be favorable, presenting an opportunity for crypto companies to rapidly grow their user bases during this period of market uptick.”

Trump also surprised the world by launching his own memecoin in January, attracting many first-time investors to crypto, according to a US survey conducted by NFT Evening. 

This also boosted crypto applications in the US, with apps like Crypto.com, Moonshot and Coinbase dominating the US Apple App Store’s finance category in the aftermath of the launch.

Still, while Trump’s memecoin may have brought a new tranche of investors to crypto, a Chainalysis report showed that 813,000 crypto wallets lost up to $2 billion after buying the token.