P2P Bitcoin Exchange Paxful Trade Volume Dominated By Africa
Paxful Inc. is a peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange. Reports show that the exchange has recently been seeing significant growth in Africa.
Ray Youssef, a chief executive officer of Paxful, told South African media that over the past year, users from the African continent of 1.3 billion people soared by 225 percent. In Nigeria (Africa’s biggest economy), transactions on the exchange climbed by 60 percent, 25 percent in South Africa (Africa’s most sophisticated economy), and by up to 100 percent in the rest of the continent.
“The adoption of bitcoin across the globe re-affirms our belief that crypto will take its place as a mainstream financial system,” Youssef was quoted as saying. “As has been the case with other disruptive financial tech innovations like mobile money, Africa is leading the peer-to-peer financial revolution.”
He explained that more people from Africa are opening new accounts with Paxful more than any region in the world, each month. This is an illustration of the speed at which Africa’s swelling population of millennials is quickly taking to cryptocurrencies. This phenomenon helps against inflation and fiat currency volatility while enjoying lower transaction costs. Youssef said that the average expenditure of each Africa’s young people on BTC is $59.
The current statistics on the adoption of cryptocurrencies is contrasting with the “often heavy-handedness” attitude some African governments have used in responding to digital assets. Cryptocurrencies have been banned in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, and Mozambique.
Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and South Africa have adopted a kind of pragmatic approach.
It was also revealed by data from peer-to-peer exchange Lacalbitcoins that Russia dominates bitcoin trading with more than a quarter of all the platform’s volume. Venezuela follows at 12.2 percent and the US at 11.8 percent. In Africa, transactions from Nigeria account for 7.6 percent of the total volume, South Africa has 1.3 percent and Kenya, 0.7 percent.
Artur Schaback, a chief operating officer of Paxful, said African consumers tend to use cryptocurrency to buy goods, mostly from overseas, as well as investments in promising blockchain startups.
“As a company, we’ve learned a lot from African consumers. For instance, we’ve improved our mobile capabilities to cater to the widespread use of smartphones on the continent. Our experience in Africa has strengthened our capability to serve consumers regardless of geographical location or origin,” he explained.
