The crypto economy celebrated its 10th birthday in 2018, reaching a total market capitalisation of approximately $138,6-billion.
Despite a fluctuating market, leading global peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace Paxful saw an upswing in activity driven by African consumers. Africa conducted 6,5-million trades in 2018 – an average of 17 000 trades a day. South Africa is Paxful’s fifth top country in terms of traded volume.
Paxful co-founder and CEO Ray Youssef shares his expectations for the crypto industry for 2019.
Africa will continue to lead
The aim of the cryptocurrency revolution is to make the global economy more accessible to the masses. Africa has emerged as a leader in this space with the highest number of new subscriptions at Paxful last year. The total number of transactions from African consumers is at roughly R948-million per month, culminating in an increase of 225% new users in the last 12 months.
Transactions from South Africa increased by 25%, by 60% in Nigeria and by up to 100% in other parts of the continent, all in the same period.
Africans are using cryptocurrency to satisfy both personal finance needs and entrepreneurial ventures– transferring goods, services, and money domestically as well as globally. There is also an emerging generation of Africans buying crypto as investment vehicles into promising blockchain start-ups. A relatively small number of Africans trade digital currencies speculatively for profit.
Increased humanitarian focus
Paxful plans to grow its #BuiltWithBitcoin charitable program to encourage the cryptocurrency sector to contribute funds for humanitarian projects that focus on building schools and providing bursaries for the disadvantaged.
Governments will pay closer attention to crypto
Countries around the world are now taking a closer look at how to contend with the rise of the crypto economy. We expect more activity in the policy development space in the next few years. In South Africa, for instance, we’ve seen reports that the South African government has established a working group to examine digital currencies and blockchain technology.