A recent report by Chainalysis has revealed that the growth of Bitcoin adoption in the continent of Africa is over 1,200 percent, and it is fueled by retail investors’ interest in savings, remittances, and peer-to-peer (P2P) trading.
Information made available to Chainalysis by Paxful, a P2P exchange, reveals that the platform had seen significant growth in African, with 57 percent growth from Nigeria and more than 300 percent from Kenya within a year.
Not only that, Africa is considered the largest user of Bitcoin P2P trading, which traditional financial institutions and government restrictions necessitate its use, and has helped to facilitate permissionless transactions, such as remittances and transfers transborder.
Artur Schaback, COO and co-founder of P2P exchange Paxful, explained that users switched to Bitcoin P2P to initiate transborder payments for goods importation because of its advantage over the traditional financial system.
If you’re working with a partner in China to import goods to sell in Nigeria or Kenya, it can be hard to send enough fiat currency to China to complete your purchases. It’s often easier to just buy bitcoin locally on a P2P exchange and then send it to your partner.
It is worth adding that aside from savings and remittances considered as the factors necessitating Bitcoin P2P, a hostile economic condition also powers Bitcoin adoption in the continent, just as Paxful saw growth in its Bitcoin trading volume in Nigeria following the country’s currency devaluation.
