Bitcoin in Kenya: Africa is a leading continent in the game of cryptocurrency. There are many investors in cryptocurrency exchange in Africa, like South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria. Due to crypto-assets, there is a lot of potential for Africans to advance some of the existing financial services from traditional to new modes.
The cryptocurrency has been significantly addressed for its potential in the world’s financial sector. It is also a hope for the nations that lack a dependable economic system or governance. Privacy of funds, access to finances, faith in a shared medium, and security have also helped many on the African continent.
Africa Second in Bitcoin Trades
Eventually, in May 2020, Africa became the second largest region in P2P bitcoin trades after North America toppling Latin America to a significant degree.
- North America – $108,300,000
- Sub Saharan – $54,800,000
- Latin America – $48,000,000
- Asia Pacific – $40,000,000
- Eastern Europe – $37,400,000
This progress showed that Africa’s financial infrastructure has significant potential in digital currency because of platforms like bitcoin power that have made trading a lot easier not only for experienced investors but also for novice traders.
According to a report given by Luno and Arcane Research, which is a cryptocurrency platform globally, “the economic landscape across the continent augurs well for cryptocurrency adoption in Africa.”
Compared to traditional money transmitting services, which charge very high and intra-African payments are prolonged, cryptocurrency offers lower-cost and faster remittance payments than is currently available.
Growth in Kenya
In sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya being a leading hub in financial stature is a massive investor among African countries like South Africa and Nigeria. The government has been consistently growing in innovative products globally, with M-Pesa being its most tremendous pride.
Kenya is also a leading African country amongst ten global countries holding cryptocurrency and blockchain-related transactions. Bitcoin’s future in Kenya seems much brighter than traditional financial services.
As of January 2018, Kenya represented about 2% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product in Bitcoin, a remarkable feat. Ten countries have a comparable level of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) investment in cryptocurrencies. However, the government is still refusing the regulation of cryptocurrency because of its anonymous nature.
There is a DST (digital service tax) as of 2021 announcing that there will be a 1.5% tax on all digital currencies, including cryptocurrency. This aims for the government to earn $46 million from crypto.
According to a bitcoin trading platform Paxful, between the years 2015-2020, Kenya has registered more than Ksh6 billion , making it the second in Bitcoin trade on the African continent.
See >> What You Need To Know Before Your Start Trading Bitcoin
One of the heads of Market Insights of Paxful, Brian McCabe, said: “The recession caused by COVID-19 made people look for financial alternatives – earning income, moving money, etc., and saw crypto as an alternative.”
Conclusion
In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic made Kenya’s traditional financial system low to a significant degree as people were not getting out of their homes to be safe. This increased need in the economic field. Hence, people started getting more interested in cryptocurrency. There was more bitcoin trading in the respective year than ever before. This year bitcoin trade was worth Ksh5.1 billion which was 472% more than a year early.
Between the years 2015-2020, Kenya traded a total of 5,895 bitcoins, which made it one of the world’s biggest bitcoin trading countries. A steady increase in August 2020 from January 2020 and August witnessed the highest volume of Kenya shillings, trading 969.153 million.
