Rome among the cities most ready for cryptocurrencies

A recent CoinWire research has found that Rome is one of the most cryptocurrency-ready cities in the world.

The research is titled “Most Crypto-ready Cities 2024” and was conducted to answer the question of which cities offer the greatest opportunities for trading and investment, and the highest enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies.

Roma Crypto-ready City: the city ready to fully embrace cryptocurrencies

Although the city of Rome is not the one that has obtained the highest score, it is still among the cities most ready for cryptocurrencies, with a score of 85.85 out of 100, along with Los Angeles and Singapore. 

Taking into consideration the overall ranking of the Crypto Ready Score, Rome ranks 29th, compared to Florence’s 44th. Interestingly, this ranking did not take into account the city of Milan, which is the second largest in Italy (Florence is only the eighth). Instead, it considered cities like Dubrovnik in Croatia or Bucharest in Romania.  

In particular, Rome has obtained the maximum score (100) regarding legal aspects, and a very high score (97.14) regarding companies. 

Even the employment score is decidedly high (94.09), while all the other scores have turned out to be low or very low. In fact, it has only obtained 0.77 for ATMs, and it has obtained zero for the acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

In light of these data, it is a bit difficult to understand why it obtained a score of 85.85 as the most cryptocurrency-ready city, especially since its Crypto Ready Score is just above 55. 

Florence

The only other Italian city that has been taken into consideration is Florence, not Milan. 

Florence has obtained an overall score lower than 54 points, which is slightly lower than Rome. Even for Florence, the highest score (100) is related to legal issues, and this is probably due to the fact that in Italy in 2023 a new specific law for the treatment of cryptocurrencies came into force, and in 2024 the MiCA will come into force throughout the European Union. 

However, compared to Rome, Florence has a lower Companies Score (80), so much so that the Employment Score is higher (88). 

However, Florence also has a zero acceptance score and only 0.17 for ATMs. 

New York

The ranking is dominated by the city of New York.

The Crypto Ready Score of New York has been 85.85 points, with a Legal Score of 100. Even this last data sounds a bit strange, since neither the State of New York nor the USA have specific laws yet regulating cryptocurrencies. 

New York, however, stands out for two other perfect scores: in fact, it has also obtained a score of 100 in acceptance of cryptocurrencies and in Employment Score. 

Paradoxically, the lowest score for New York is related to companies (34.29), even surpassed by ATMs (45.14). 

The other cities

London is in second place in this ranking, with 75 points, followed by Los Angeles with 73. 

At the fourth place there is Sydney, while at the fifth place there is the first Asian city, Singapore. 

The first African city is Cape Town, in eleventh place, while the first Latin American city is Guadalajara in Mexico, in seventeenth place. 

They outperform Rome Bogotà, in Colombia, Ho Chi Min City, in Vietnam, and even Christchurch in New Zealand. 

The city with the lowest score among those considered has paradoxically turned out to be Tokyo, with 52.84 points, despite Japan being the very first country in the world to accept cryptocurrency payments. 

Los Angeles, on the other hand, has been found to have the highest number of crypto ATMs (1810). 

The adoption of cryptocurrencies beyond the city of Rome

To be honest, these data seem a bit strange, especially those related to cities that are not in North America. 

For example, in this ranking no Swiss city is included, not even Lugano where cryptocurrencies are now commonly accepted by many merchants. 

Even the cities of the United Arab Emirates are missing, such as Dubai, and above all the capital of El Salvador is missing, where Bitcoin is even legal tender. 

Given these shortcomings, the CoinWire report cannot be taken as a reference point to have a complete picture regarding the adoption of cryptocurrencies around the world. 

Furthermore, the report only analyzes individual cities, that is, it focuses on a specific environment probably because its purpose was precisely this. 

In fact, other rankings that analyze this data by country, and not by city, give different results, precisely because at a more specific level there are very different realities among them, and so at a national level often the internal differences turn out to be such as not to give particularly representative results.