Crypto users in Africa grew by 2,500% in 2021: Report

[Hydrogen]

A recent report by KuCoin reveals that the number of crypto transactions has increased by 2,670% in some African countries.

Cryptocurrency adoption in Africa is on the march, despite socioeconomic factors and headwinds. A positive report by cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin shows that crypto transactions increased by up to 2,670% in 2022.

An astonishing growth trend, the steep influx relates to the low values that have been observed during previous periods. The number of crypto transactions in Africa constitutes roughly 2.8% of global volumes.

Johnny Lyu, CEO of KuCoin, told Cointelegraph that “the adoption of digital assets in Africa will continue to grow exponentially,” adding that “African countries have the highest crypto adoption rate in the world, outperforming even the biggest regions such as the United States, Europe and Asia.”

Nourou, founder of Bitcoin Senegal, is convinced that the thousand percent growth rates for Bitcoin (BTC) adoption “will continue in coming years.”

“Take a look at the way in which cars, mobile phones and consumer electronics took off on the continent. Africa is a continent where lightning-fast progression and adoption is common.”

Worldwide crypto transactions over a 90 day period. Sub-Saharan Africa is second. Source: UsefulTulips

In particular, the report cites that “more than 88.5% of cryptocurrency transactions made by Africans are cross-border transfers.” Low fees mean that “users pay less than 0.01% of the overall amount of the transaction transferred in cryptocurrencies.”

From high inflation levels and swelling smartphone penetration — effectively allowing anyone to become their own bank — Africa also has a young and digitally native population that is accustomed to digital currencies. Africa is a robust testing ground for the problems which cryptocurrencies attempt to solve.

Lyu did add a note of caution to the staggering growth levels:

“That rate of growth can depend on both local policy-makers and separate officials’ stances on cryptocurrencies. Still, I believe that a promising future for digital money in Africa is inevitable.”

In Central and West Africa, for example, BTC adoption is growing against a backdrop of mistrust and discomfort using the local currency, the CFA. Cointelegraph has previously analyzed the state of crypto adoption in Africa, noting that “economic opportunities presented by the region are immense.”

For Lyu, Africa is in an interesting position given that the combination of “growing inflation, high unemployment rates, poor access to bank services and enormous fees for international payments,” creates an environment conducive to crypto adoption. Ultimately:

“Financial problems the region is experiencing are forcing people to look for new instruments and technologies that can give them some of the economic freedom they currently lack.”

In the long-term, Africa hosts a wealth of advantages “which cannot but contribute to the widespread use of digital assets among locals.” The median age in Africa is very low — at just 19 years old — and over 40% of the population is urban.

“Another positive phenomenon is the growing technological awareness of the local population, with many young people exploring programming and internet technologies.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-users-in-africa-grew-by-2-500-in-2021-report

....


The groundwork for mobile based finance and banking in africa has been laid for many years. Making the transition to a cryptocurrency based economy easier, than it may be for other nations like el salvador. There is speculation 1,000% annual growth will be maintained in africa, with 88.5% transactions occurring across borders to leverage low transaction fees.

Africa is a region which is no stranger to hyperinflation and economic troubles. The zimbabwe dollar was known for hyperinflating, long before venezuela and the bolivar or even argentina had their own inflationary troubles.

I suppose the question now, is whether africa is an exception and outlier. Or whether it embracing cryptocurrencies illustrates for us, the future.

[Oluwa-btc]

I expect further growth than this honestly speaking, during the African Cup of nations, a lot of people got to about Cryptocurrency as Binance was part of the sponsor's for the Competition.
Africans are blessed and fast in accepting valuable stuff's like this, it's widely known how we have bad, old fashioned, political representatives who doesn't permit for the growth of development and technologies.
Despite that, Africans are recalcitrant and doing great in the cryptocurrency sphere... Gladdens me to see this statistics that Africans are in the top three leading to adoption.

[Pomogator]

 I can easily accept such results. In all developing countries, where people are constantly looking for an additional way to earn money, the population is massively trying something. Bitcoin is the most popular way to increase your capital, therefore such growth figures. I myself am not from a developed country, so I can safely say that kritpa is practically the only area for earning additional funds.

[Lucius]

The title says "Crypto users in Africa grew by 2,500% in 2021", but the report talks about an increase in crypto transactions "A recent report by KuCoin reveals that the number of crypto transactions has increased by 2,670% in some African countries"

In any case, I don't see things like this as something that should be taken for granted, but more as self-promotion. Some Johhny said this to some shitty crypto media that will make some money from all those who believe in such fairy tales, a win-win situation for both and Africa has gained several million new crypto users

[Hydrogen]

The title says "Crypto users in Africa grew by 2,500% in 2021", but the report talks about an increase in crypto transactions "A recent report by KuCoin reveals that the number of crypto transactions has increased by 2,670% in some African countries"

I guess they meant to say crypto usage increased by 2,500%.

Wonder if word prediction got the better of them there?

It goes on to say 88.5% were cross border transactions. If each transaction represents 1 person, sending crypto across the border to friends or family. It could correlate with an increase in users on a near 1:1 basis.

[fiulpro]

There were a lot of instances where the government did not support cryptocurrencies as a whole which made this growth even more significant. One have to understand the fact that cryptocurrencies as a whole does have a lot of purpose and government cannot really control their usage no matter how much they wish to, there is still no legality regarding cryptocurrencies neither are they protected by law as well.

Most of these transactions are p2p since banks and western union, overseas are not that much of a handy option therefore cryptocurrencies are making their moves by dominating the overseas transactions.

Even students going to colleges are actually benefiting from sending/recieving their fee through cryptocurrencies, to and from Nigeria, it's very very popular, almost every Nigerian friend of mine owns cryptocurrencies. Altcoins are also gaining popularity.

[buwaytress]

OK, makes more sense reading the actual headline: 25x increase in crypto-related transactions, not users... =)

And not that I'm going all pedant but transacting with an exchange is not really using so much as trading. Crypto traders may very well be rising but I think users need to be defined a bit better. e.g. Drug users and drug traders I like to say ha

Also, depending on how they choose to send, could actually not even be on-chain. I say this as the report looks at cross-border txs. How else would you know unless using Kucoin? This also makes sense when you open the Kucoin report and it links "low fees" to their own promotion of low fees for trading.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

Transactions from African countries increase on kucoin exchange, I believe that's what this article is just trying to say and I won't be surprised by that. Previously Binance Exchange was usually the go to exchange for most Africans. I know of people that know of Binance Exchange or have heard of it without even knowing anything about cryptocurency but recently that has been declining due to the injustice from the exchange. Other exchanges are benefiting from this as there has been some serious online campaign especially on the bird app (twitter) and this would had discourage many from using Binance Exchange instead start looking for other alternative.

Nigeria should have some big volume if the countries contributing to this increase were published. Many Nigeria as a result of this; Binance vs Nigerian; Most recent development on frozen funds without prior notice and other reason have stop trading on Binance and since Kucoin is quite similar to Binance, it's assume they got some traffic which lead to the increase in transactions as they're reporting. As for those talking about the users, steadily African is having more individually involved in the space. I don't have the data to back that now but it's quite evident among the youths

[takngantuk]

the percentage is higher than asia, i think asia has more crypto fans than african continent. This proves that the level of users in Africa is higher and it is possible that African countries adopted crypto first than Asian or Latin American countries.

[omone1]

Expect more and more increase in the number of people entering Crypto, Africa is a continent rich in natural resources with large arable lands, but our government has done nothing to better lives or improve the economy of the continent, so people saw a global market, they dump the government dead stock market and sign up for a better market.

[stompix]

The title says "Crypto users in Africa grew by 2,500% in 2021", but the report talks about an increase in crypto transactions "A recent report by KuCoin reveals that the number of crypto transactions has increased by 2,670% in some African countries"

In any case, I don't see things like this as something that should be taken for granted, but more as self-promotion. Some Johhny said this to some shitty crypto media that will make some money from all those who believe in such fairy tales, a win-win situation for both and Africa has gained several million new crypto users

This report is a clear example of trying to paint an exaggerated picture but on constraints of your previously overexaggerated numbers.

An astonishing growth trend, the steep influx relates to the low values that have been observed during previous periods. The number of crypto transactions in Africa constitutes roughly 2.8% of global volumes.

What can we understand from this, is that the growth in Africa has been far bigger than in any other part of the world, so let's give it a 3x time growth? That would mean the previous numbers would have shown a less than 1% of global volume in Africa, despite the claims of tens of millions of users there. So everything they have said before about Africa leading somehow the way was totally fake.

But it doesn't even stop here, if we would go with the increased usage but low payments this paragraph also makes no sense

In particular, the report cites that “more than 88.5% of cryptocurrency transactions made by Africans are cross-border transfers.” Low fees mean that “users pay less than 0.01% of the overall amount of the transaction transferred in cryptocurrencies.”

If they would be sending those with 1sat/b and that's 5 cents per tx for a single input/output tx it means that the sums are at least over 500$ each, ignoring of course the cost for the purchasing and exchanging. Which again, makes little sense if we talk about high usage low volume.

[oHnK]

I've read a unique something which is mentioned by Jack Dorsey, He said that "Africa will have future in Bitcoin" so now we will see how they are able to realize an advanced economy with the massive use of Bitcoin.  But don't get the wrong perception, Jack Dorsey has researched it very professionally

[Renampun]

I've read a unique something which is mentioned by Jack Dorsey, He said that "Africa will have future in Bitcoin" so now we will see how they are able to realize an advanced economy with the massive use of Bitcoin.  But don't get the wrong perception, Jack Dorsey has researched it very professionally

I also saw this jack dorsey tweet...

jack dorsey was even willing to leave the CEO position of Twitter to Parag Agrawal just to focus on developing his lighting network platform and also expanding his personal research in crypto, especially Bitcoin. Africa is a very extraordinary continent, the growth of crypto enthusiasts has exceeded Asia's, and I'm sure the number will continue to grow in the future.

[Xal0lex]

Cryptocurrency adoption in Africa is on the march, despite socioeconomic factors and headwinds.

Cryptocurrency has always helped countries with weak economies and hyperinflation. Personally I am not surprised that in such regions we see explosive growth of crypto-transactions and growth of adoptshen, the same p2p transactions help people in such countries to find solutions in difficult economic and financial situation. There are many countries in Africa with hyper inflation, money is constantly depreciating, banks impose limits on fiat turnover and money transfers, moreover, commissions for such transfers can be unreasonably high. Therefore, converting local currency into cryptocurrency in such countries, as well as storing savings in cryptocurrency, is an extremely logical step.

[Fortify]

A recent report by KuCoin reveals that the number of crypto transactions has increased by 2,670% in some African countries.

Cryptocurrency adoption in Africa is on the march, despite socioeconomic factors and headwinds. A positive report by cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin shows that crypto transactions increased by up to 2,670% in 2022.

An astonishing growth trend, the steep influx relates to the low values that have been observed during previous periods. The number of crypto transactions in Africa constitutes roughly 2.8% of global volumes.

Johnny Lyu, CEO of KuCoin, told Cointelegraph that “the adoption of digital assets in Africa will continue to grow exponentially,” adding that “African countries have the highest crypto adoption rate in the world, outperforming even the biggest regions such as the United States, Europe and Asia.”

Nourou, founder of Bitcoin Senegal, is convinced that the thousand percent growth rates for Bitcoin (BTC) adoption “will continue in coming years.”

“Take a look at the way in which cars, mobile phones and consumer electronics took off on the continent. Africa is a continent where lightning-fast progression and adoption is common.”

In particular, the report cites that “more than 88.5% of cryptocurrency transactions made by Africans are cross-border transfers.” Low fees mean that “users pay less than 0.01% of the overall amount of the transaction transferred in cryptocurrencies.”

From high inflation levels and swelling smartphone penetration — effectively allowing anyone to become their own bank — Africa also has a young and digitally native population that is accustomed to digital currencies. Africa is a robust testing ground for the problems which cryptocurrencies attempt to solve.

Lyu did add a note of caution to the staggering growth levels:

“That rate of growth can depend on both local policy-makers and separate officials’ stances on cryptocurrencies. Still, I believe that a promising future for digital money in Africa is inevitable.”

In Central and West Africa, for example, BTC adoption is growing against a backdrop of mistrust and discomfort using the local currency, the CFA. Cointelegraph has previously analyzed the state of crypto adoption in Africa, noting that “economic opportunities presented by the region are immense.”

For Lyu, Africa is in an interesting position given that the combination of “growing inflation, high unemployment rates, poor access to bank services and enormous fees for international payments,” creates an environment conducive to crypto adoption. Ultimately:

“Financial problems the region is experiencing are forcing people to look for new instruments and technologies that can give them some of the economic freedom they currently lack.”

In the long-term, Africa hosts a wealth of advantages “which cannot but contribute to the widespread use of digital assets among locals.” The median age in Africa is very low — at just 19 years old — and over 40% of the population is urban.

“Another positive phenomenon is the growing technological awareness of the local population, with many young people exploring programming and internet technologies.”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-users-in-africa-grew-by-2-500-in-2021-report

....


The groundwork for mobile based finance and banking in africa has been laid for many years. Making the transition to a cryptocurrency based economy easier, than it may be for other nations like el salvador. There is speculation 1,000% annual growth will be maintained in africa, with 88.5% transactions occurring across borders to leverage low transaction fees.

Africa is a region which is no stranger to hyperinflation and economic troubles. The zimbabwe dollar was known for hyperinflating, long before venezuela and the bolivar or even argentina had their own inflationary troubles

I think crypto is the perfect concept for Africa and it makes sense there more than most other places. It is a region where access to the internet, banking or even power can be difficult to access at times. They have large populations which receive money from overseas and want to keep exchange fees to a minimum. They have the option to use exchanges for storage or might even want to keep a physical copy available in their possession - outside the hands of any potential corrupt officials. It makes absolute sense for this continent to grow even more usage.

[Husires]

KuCoin does not require KYC, nor strictly ask users to pass KYC.
you can create several accounts and withdraw up to about 10 Bitcoin per day, so how can this data be accurate?

• Did they rely on IP addresses?
• Did they count accounts that passed KYC and from Africa?
• Is the percentage from a specific country or all countries?
• How were they able to determine the percentages for each country?
• How much previous data? before 2021

I will not doubt the amount of data, but it represents the number of users on Kucoin and not for the whole of Africa.

[tygeade]

I think crypto is the perfect concept for Africa and it makes sense there more than most other places. It is a region where access to the internet, banking or even power can be difficult to access at times. They have large populations which receive money from overseas and want to keep exchange fees to a minimum. They have the option to use exchanges for storage or might even want to keep a physical copy available in their possession - outside the hands of any potential corrupt officials. It makes absolute sense for this continent to grow even more usage.

That is right. We all can remember the protest that took place in one of the countries, Nigeria. And how the protesters decided to switch to cryptocurrency when they notice that the government has started to tackle their efforts. With Bitcoin they were all able to achieve a lot during the protest and were able to raise up a lot of funds through donations that were carried out on social media using crypto currency (Bitcoin).

If there was nothing like Bitcoin, their government would be able to easily shut down whatever protest or activities that were going on in the country. And this is also the same thing we saw that happened in Canada as of recent, during the protest people were able to raise up money for the protests using Bitcoin, after the government has tried to block them from making use of Fiat.

[perfect999]

Crypto currency is really growing in so many countries in Africa, platforms like binance.com has become one of the major cryptocurrency exchanges that you would find in Africa. With the high inflation that these countries are facing it is very much possible that most of them would like to get into cryptocurrency as a way to save value and not lose it due to their dwindling Fiat.

And adding the fact that cryptocurrency is much cheaper for making transactions to relatives abroad, most of the people in Africa would prefer to make use of Bitcoin when they are making transactions rather than make use of banks or options like Western Union and MoneyGram.

[kaseygriffin]

This shows that with the popularity of this market in 2021, many people have started to care and see opportunities for themselves. Perhaps the issues of political and economic instability in Africa are also causing a lot of interest in this field. Perhaps the issues of political and economic instability... lead to more people's being interested in this field more and more. Besides that, we're still seeing profit hype in this space.

[bitgolden]

One of the main reasons for this is the fact that even though Africa hold so many people, there are not much that they can offer to the world and can't develop properly because of this. There are some poor nations all over the world but they are usually doing worse either because they are not improved well enough yet, or there are corruptions there. Africa is both either and neither of those things.

Definitely they are not improved enough but even if they do, there aren't much that they could offer, and there is still corruption, but not in every single African nation of course. It means that by working with crypto, they could finally get paid decently and improve their lives. At least with bitcoin, we could expect Africa people will get decent life regardless of their corrupted politicians.