Argentina is approaching a weekly trading volume of USD 1 million on LocalBitcoins. On Paxful, Latin America recently exceeded USD 300,000 per week.
The trading volume of Bitcoin through P2P platforms is increasing in various countries in Latin America. Argentina, Mexico, and Uruguay have recently reached their all-time high.
In recent days, Argentina exceeded its highest weekly Bitcoin trading volume through the platform LocalBitcoins. For the first time, the trade from the South American country was above USD 960,000 in a single week, according to data from UsefulTulips.
The same source shows that the trade from Argentina also reached record levels on Paxful during the last 7-day period. The trading volume was slightly above USD 39,000.
For its part, the trading volume of Mexico exceeded USD 636,000 on LocalBitcoins in one week. On Paxful, Mexicans moved more than USD 56,000 worth of Bitcoin. Both cases represent all-time highs for the country.
Uruguay also exceeded its maximum trading volume on the two platforms a couple of weeks ago. For LocalBitcoins, movements from Uruguay were above USD 48,400 in that period. However, the trading volumes on Paxful are much lower. The new high is just USD 633, but that amount doubles the previous record for a week.
In a broader picture, the accumulated volume of all Latin America also exceeded its record level on Paxful. For the first time, the exchange platform traded more than USD 300,000 from the region during last week, according to data from UsefulTulips.
Other countries also had their highest trading volumes recently but were much lower. The Honduras case on LocalBitcoins is particularly prominent. This platform moved more than USD 25,000 from the Central American country three weeks ago. The previous high was dated December 2017, with USD 16,326.
For its part, Venezuela exceeded USD 34,000 on Paxful last week, breaking the record for the second consecutive week. In the previous period, the trade from the Caribbean country was just USD 17,800.
Paxful Gains Ground in the Latin American Region
The increase in trade on Paxful has been significant in Latin America until now this year. During the first two months of 2020, the trading volume on the platform flirted with USD 100,000 in the best weeks. Since then, the increase has been sustained and currently triples the value of the weekly trading volume.
Comparing those volumes with those of LocalBitcoins, Paxful is still far from dominating the market in the region. However, both platforms currently move more than USD 40 million, in overall terms.
The accumulated volume between both platforms has even exceeded USD 86,000,000 in one week. With this record, it has broken last June’s all-time high of USD 84,000,000 during the last week.
Bitcoin’s relevance is increasingly evident in Latin America, of which the trading volumes of the aforementioned platforms are only one example. In countries with high levels of inflation such as Argentina and Venezuela, many of its citizens see the first cryptocurrency as a haven.
By Alexander Salazar
