I'm a little bit confused why Malta was included as one of the top hotspots for use of BTC as per OP's reference article? I just hope that classification don't include its preference as one of the most crypto friendly states, and  currently hosting big crypto businesses such as Binance, etc..

If I'm not mistaken, being a hotspot for BTC use includes local community adoption e.g. with real world usage such as using it as  mode of payment in a market or any payment transaction and it has significant BTC holders as compared with other big countries.

I guess hosting exchanges or other crypto business alone don't qualify Malta as a top hotspot for BTC use other than for trading transactions in exchanges it is hosting. Imho.