Due to a host of reasons, South America and Africa are two regions where crypto adoption is happening from the ground up with citizens looking into ways to hedge against their national fiat currencies and inflation by investing in cryptocurrencies that are way more stable and reliable. In South America, the crown of the biggest crypto adopter belongs to Argentina, but Peru, Brazil, and Venezuela are not far behind. In Africa, the prestigious title was recently obtained by Nigeria.
Overtaking Kenya on the way to crypto adoption
The report by Chainanalysis indicates that Nigeria is the biggest adopter of crypto in Africa, ahead of Kenya and Morocco. Nigeria is now in the 11th position worldwide by multiple metrics. Both Kenya and Nigeria surged in several metrics and had significant improvements in the general score.
Nigeria managed to show impressive growth of over 100% rising from 0.26 to 0.521 in just one year. Kenya gained 42% over the same period by moving from 0.28 to 0.397.
Chainanalysis calculates their index by looking at five important metrics including on-chain value on all exchanges, retail value, P2P trade volume, cryptocurrency value, and retail value from DeFi. These are measured in PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) per capita to achieve an objective metric of the mood in the population regarding cryptocurrencies.
Africans are quite interested in using cryptocurrencies to hedge against fiat currencies and be able to own money despite any political instability. It is a good bet for educated citizens of Nigeria, Kenya, and Morocco. On the other hand, some countries are showing their interest in investing in crypto. Iran is using BTC to buy some imported goods and Argentina said that they are considering the same.
Why the adoption of crypto in Africa is so important
When looking at the grand scheme of things, Africa may be the next economic powerhouse and the biggest producer of consumer goods with the biggest potential to surge in many economical metrics. It means that these countries will see massive GDP growths while using cryptocurrencies — a very optimistic image for the whole crypto community!