Africans are Dominating Bitcoin Trade on Paxful

By Chetna Phour

According to a United States based company, Paxful Inc. Africans are now accounting for the largest number of people who are buying and selling cryptocurrency on its platform. The average monthly transactions done by Africans are totalling $64.5 million. Paxful Inc. is a peer-to-peer (P2P) bitcoin exchange which is seeing significant growth in Africa.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of Paxful, Ray Youssef over the past year users from African continent soared by 225%. In Nigeria, which is Africa’s biggest economym transactions on Paxful climbed to 60%, this number is 25% in South Africa and by up to 100 per cent in other parts of Africa. Ray said that:

“The adoption of bitcoin across the globe re-affirms our belief that crypto will take its place as a mainstream financial system. As has been the case with other disruptive financial tech innovations like mobile money, Africa is leading the peer-to-peer financial revolution.”

Another peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange, Localbitcoins has also recently revealed that Russians are dominating bitcoin trading on its platform. According to Localbitcoins Russians accounts for over a quarter of the platform’s volume, followed by Venezuela at 12.2%, the United States at 11.8%, Nigeria at 7.6%, South Africa at 1.3%, and Kenya at 0.7%.

According to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Paxful, Artur Schaback ,African users are using Bitcoin to buy goods from overseas platforms. Africans are also investing Bitcoins in promising Blockchain startups. Artur said that:

“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.”

Ray said that each month Africans are opening new accounts with the cryptocurrency exchange than from any other country in the world. The rising number of cryptocurrency traders shows that the African millennials are taking an interest in the digital asset class. On an average, African millennial spends $5 each on Bitcoin via Paxful.

Despite the less enthusiastic government policies cryptocurrency adoption is increasing at a rapid pace in Africa. Countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, and Mozambique banned the cryptocurrencies while countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa have adopted the digital asset class.