“Africa is the next digital currency frontier” is a rhetoric you may have become used to by now. However, new data is proving that this isn’t just a narrative pushed by media outlets—the continent has now surpassed Latin America in peer-to-peer trading volume for the first time.
African P2P platforms registered over $14 million worth of trading volume in the last week, the data from analytics platform Useful Tulips shows. This is the first time that Africa has surpassed Latin America in trading volume, Useful Tulips founder Matt Ahlborg shared on Twitter.
[1/2] Africa had ANOTHER record week on global P2P markets. In all, over 13M in USD equivalent was traded across 18 African currencies and this was the first week on record where African volume exceeded Latin American volume on these P2P exchanges.https://t.co/IZzHqwcpRS pic.twitter.com/LbmLac4pfq
— Matt Ahlborg (@MattAhlborg) May 19, 2020
Africa is now only second to North America in P2P digital currency trading, the data shows. The North American region still has a significant lead in this sector, recording $25.8 million worth of weekly trading volume.
Africa surpassing Latin America is a significant milestone. For a long time, Latin America has been regarded as the best example of how digital currencies are offering a lifeline to a region afflicted by inflation and economic chaos. Citizens in such countries as Venezuela and Colombia have showed that digital currencies can be the solution to the currency crisis.
Nigeria has continued to be the most dominant player in the African market. In the past week, the West African country recorded $9.3 million in trading volume. South Africa comes in at a distant second with $1.7 million, with Kenya following closely behind at $1.6 million.
The new data reiterates a study done by Luno and Arcane Research on Africa which showed a budding digital currency market. As CoinGeek reported, the report showed a market in which trading mostly takes place on P2P platforms, with centralized exchanges still finding it difficult to penetrate the market. The ‘The State of Crypto: Africa’ report also looked at the challenges facing the African market, including poor infrastructure, lack of technical adoption and low internet penetration.
The future does however look bright for the African digital currency market, and with the volume on P2P platforms surging in recent months, it won’t be long before the continent catches up with Western countries.
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