By Andrei Skvarsky.
Peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange Paxful reiterated this month that its African business is booming and was still upbeat about the use of cryptocurrencies in Africa in general, arguing that 2020 will be a “landmark year for the African crypto and blockchain industry”.
In tune with a statement it issued in autumn 2019,
Paxful said this month that Africa is the part of the world where the US-based firm
is running its fastest-growing business.
African volumes of bitcoin trade on Paxful’s platform
swelled by more than 57 per cent in 2019, the firm said in a statement in
February, expressing hope there would be further growth in 2020.
Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Kenya are Paxful’s
main African markets. The company plans to expand its business to “many more
markets” in the contnent, “including Zambia and Uganda”, it said.
Paxful claims it has millions of users globally and
that, on a world scale, it processed nearly $1.6bn in trading volumes in 2019.
Paxful issues every
user with a free digital wallet that enables them to send, receive and store bitcoin.
It currently hosts more than three million wallets, 45 per cent of them held by
Africans.
As part of an agreement announced in December 2019, Paxful serves as a fiat-to-cryptocurrency on-ramp for Binance, a Malta-based global cryptocurrency exchange considered the world’s biggest crypto bourse.
Paxful uses no broking services and runs a 24/7 customer
support system.
It purports to promote financial inclusion through
peer-to-peer finance.
Paxful, set
up in 2015, has more than 100 employees around the world with offices in
New York City, Hong Kong, Estonia and the Philippines.
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