The African continent outperforms Latin America in P2P trading volume. Everything seems to indicate that Africa will become the next cryptocurrency epicenter.
Cryptocurrency adoption is making important strides in the African continent, with trading volumes and regulations gaining greater acceptance. The community wonders whether Africa will become the next cryptocurrency epicenter.
A recent report by Arcane Research and Luno found that Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya were frequently in the top 10 countries regarding Google searches for the word “Bitcoin”.
The report also describes the continent as one of the most promising regions for cryptocurrency adoption. It highlights the combination of low adoption cryptocurrencies in Africa with a strong possibility of dominance.
New Adoption of BTC in Africa
Companies highlight that Africa has a young population, frequent monetary crises and currency failures, large unbanked or under-banked populations, and expensive means of payment. Therefore, Africa may be a great cryptocurrency epicenter in the near future.
The report found that South Africa has the highest percentage of ownership or use of cryptocurrencies in Africa. Nigeria has dominated trading volume on the continent for a while. However, it has 11% of cryptocurrency users now, preceded by South Africa with 13%.
Similarly, South Africa ranks fifth in cryptocurrency adoption among connected citizens worldwide.
In recent days, South Africa released its second largest weekly volume in the peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin (BTC) market. According to data from LocalBitcoins, there was a trading volume of almost USD 1.65 million in BTC.
In this sense, the increase in trading activity caused the total P2P trading volume in South Africa to exceed that of Kenya, which recently obtained 1.95 million US dollars through trade on LocalBitcoins and Paxful.
Likewise, the South African financial regulator issued a policy document last month. It stated that crypto assets and activities related to virtual currencies can no longer remain outside the regulatory perimeter.
Peer-To-Peer Trade Increases across Africa
Nigerian P2P trading is also reaching all-time highs, producing USD 9.2 million in weekly combined trading.
On the other hand, Kenyan trade has recently experienced a rebound. LocalBitcoins trading between BTC and the Kenyan shilling had its second strongest week. A graph shows that BTC trading in Kenya increasingly rebounds every day.
Other African countries like Morocco and Egypt have also reached highs in trading activity in recent weeks. This is the reason why, the increase in volume across the continent has also made P2P volume in Sub-Saharan Africa exceed, for the first time, that of Latin America. This positions Africa as a new epicenter of cryptocurrencies.
BTC trade in Latin America has declined since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, P2P Bitcoin trading volumes in Africa have continued to rise. In this sense, the continent has registered its third consecutive all-time high in trading activity.
This may be due to the large number of young people and great economic difficulties in African countries. One of the best ways to trade and grow is through cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
Over USD 14.6 million in Bitcoin recently changed hands among African users of the P2P cryptocurrency markets LocalBitcoins and Paxful. Sub-Saharan Africa ranks fifth in volume, behind North America, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific.
There is an increase in P2P transactions in the African continent and a similar rebound due to the health crisis linked to COVID-19. This probably indicates that the continent will be the next cryptocurrency epicenter.
By Alexander Salazar
