Bitcoin trading volumes on P2P platforms in Sub-Saharan African countries reached record levels this summer. 60% of the weekly volume is accounted for by Nigeria, according to Arcane Research.
The weekly P2P volume in Sub-Saharan Africa has reached
a new all-time high this summer. The weekly volume rose throughout May, and has plateaued at around $16 million. Nigeria is the dominating force in the region, accounting for around 60% of the weekly trade volume. pic.twitter.com/gu9ayZP9Kt— Arcane Research (@ArcaneResearch) August 13, 2020
On 10 July 2020, trading volume on P2P platforms in these countries amounted to $16.7 million. Paxful accounted for $9.42 million, and LocalBitcoins for $7.1 million.
Arcane Research data
Since January 2020, the weekly trading volume in Ghana and Kenya has more than tripled.
It ceded ground to its main regional rival LocalBitcoins after the introduction of mandatory KYC procedures, which most people in these countries could not pass.
Africa surpassed Latin America in P2P trading volume in May this year.
Uganda, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Ghana rank among the top 10 countries for “cryptocurrency” searches on Google. One in seven internet users in South Africa own cryptocurrency — the third highest in the world. Read more about the region’s search-query patterns here.
The aggregate volume of bitcoin trades on LocalBitcoins and Paxful in the first week of August was a record $94.8 million. The African region was the growth driver.
On the eve of Binance disclosed for the first time data from its P2P platform — since its launch in October 2019, trading volume has stood at $2.5 billion. Unlike rivals, the service also supports BNB, ETH, EOS and BUSD.
Read the Arcane Research briefing in Russian здесь. Это бесплатно.
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