In the past month, the cryptocurrency industry has been on a major bull run, regaining some of the losses of the past six brutal months. On Google Trends, searches for Bitcoin and crypto have also skyrocketed. The world has turned its eyes to cryptos once again.
However, Africa has been riding the crypto wave throughout, even when the prospects weren’t so glamorous. And while many have said this in the past without concrete evidence, one of the most popular crypto wallets and trading platform in Africa has confirmed as much.
Marius Reitz, the general manager of Luno’s African operations, revealed in a recent interview that Africa has remained as enthusiastic about cryptos as it was when the prices were at record highs. Speaking to South African outlet MyBroadband, Reitz revealed that the platform has continued to register new users even during the most bearish of markets.
He stated, “Even during the flat or declining market of the past 6-12 months, thousands of people bought cryptocurrency, for the first time, every day. We are picking up some of this interest through high engagement rates on the Luno platform, where people constantly checking the prices were not yet buying.”
According to Reitz, a growing group of investors don’t want to miss out “on the next wave,” contributing to the growing enthusiasm that Africa has showed cryptos. While the rest of the world’s hearts sank when cryptos dipped to extreme lows in 2018, African investors continued buying and selling.
While some may dismiss this wave, it’s extremely crucial, especially to a continent like Africa to whom cryptos will represent much more than just a chance to get rich. Cryptos have been tipped by many experts as the key to unlocking the continent’s potential and ridding it of elitism. The buying and selling even for just a few dollars, demystifies crypto and brings more people on board.
Reitz explained, “In this first phase people also use Bitcoin for transactions, but it’s a very tiny percentage. What you need is a critical mass of users for the transactional use cases to make sense. The asset layer is important to build the infrastructure for what we call the transaction layer, which we will see next.”
And indeed, the micro transactions are the building blocks that will bring a crypto ecosystem into reality.
New to blockchain? Check out CoinGeek’s Blockchain for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about blockchain technology.
