Africa is winning cryptocurrency adoption despite 2022 bear market
With many Africans using cryptocurrencies for everyday transactions rather than speculation, cryptocurrency market across Africa grew by over 1200% between 2020 and 2021, and its usage remains high in 2022 despite the ongoing difficult bear market.
2022 has been a very difficult year for digital asset and cryptocurrency markets when the value of many major cryptocurrencies have dropped sharply after surging to all-time highs in 2021. But this difficult bear market comes at a time when cryptos are increasingly prominent in markets across Africa. According to Chainalysis, a blockchain forensics firm, Africa’s cryptocurrency market grew by over 1200% between 2020 and 2021. They added that four African countries — Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tanzania — all rank in the top 20 for global crypto adoption. Interestingly, this growth was largely powered by “higher grassroots adoption amongst everyday users” rather than institutional investors, according to Chainalysis.