- Africa’s strong showing on P2P exchanges.
- Kenya and Ghana lead the charge with over 100% increase in P2P volume in a year.
One of the fastest growing regions in peer-to-peer transactions of Bitcoin (BTC) is sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past year, the volumes traded on the top two P2P exchanges – Paxful and LocalBitcoins – hit a high of $400 million USD, signaling a possible explosion in volumes in the coming months. With countries such as Ghana and Kenya showing accelerated growth over the past few months, it’s only a matter of time before the region becomes a world beater in P2P crypto adoption.
Sub-Saharan Africa beats Western Europe volumes
If you still doubting the potential that Africa shows on the P2P crypto market, check this out. In the past 365 days, SSA recorded a high of $399, 709, 000 USD in P2P Bitcoin trades beating the total amount recorded in Western Europe ($350 million), Australia ($71 million) and Middle East/ North Africa region ($42 million). North America leads the pack with a total of over $1.1 billion traded over the past year.
The countries leading the charge in P2P adoption rates in SSA are Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Ghana – the last two experiencing massive growth in the past six months.
Nigeria leads charge in P2P crypto adoption
While the overall adoption of crypto has been on the rise in SSA over the past year, most of it has been contributed by Africa’s largest economy – Nigeria. With over $288 million USD in trades transacted over the past year, Nigeria holds a massive 72% of the total trades on LocalBitcoins and Paxful. However, this represents a sharp 8% drop over the past period, as the country adjusts to the recent requirements set up on exchanges.
South Africa come in a distant second contributing $54.1 million USD in P2P trades, representing a 35% hike in volumes over the past year. However, the biggest performer over the past year is Kenya, which has seen a staggering 105% increase over the past year, recording $39 million USD in trades over the past year. Ghana crypto enthusiasts traded a total of $11 million USD over the previous 365 days, representing over 175% in growth.
The strong showing from Ghana and Kenya is likely due to the presence of easy payment options such as M-PESA, a mobile payment system in Kenya, and the market penetration of Paxful in the two countries. Nigeria on the other hand, may be experiencing diminished value of P2P trades as the country’s Bitcoin investors look towards regulated exchanges such as Luno.
My guesses are that 1) You can buy BTC on Luno and other regulated places in Nigeria now, 2) Bitcoin no longer demands a premium in Nigeria, and 3) Lots of Nigerian scammers have been getting weeded out of these platforms recently.
— Matt Ahlborg [UsefulTulips.org] (@MattAhlborg) March 10, 2020
Data and images collected from Usefultulips.org
from Coingape https://coingape.com/africa-leading-the-charge-on-bitcoin-btc-adoption-as-p2p-volumes-reach-record-levels/
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