The founder of Nigeria-based blockchain consulting company and product studio, ‘Convexity’ has said that the cryptocurrency industry in Sub-Saharan Africa is driven by retailers.
This is against the scenario in developed countries where the crypto industry is driven by ‘institutional-level traders’.
Owonibi made the comments in a report released by Blockchain analytics firm, Chainalysis.
Speaking with particular reference to Nigeria, he stated that the cryptocurrency industry has become a source of livelihood for many young people.
“We don’t have big, institutional-level traders in Sub-Saharan Africa,
“The people driving the market here are retail. Nigeria has a ton of highly educated young graduates with high unemployment rates, and no jobs available – crypto to them is a rescue. It’s a way to feed their family.”Owonibi said.
The report by Chainalysis stated that Ghana might be on its way to leading the way, in the adoption of cryptocurrency in Africa.
This, it said is driven by the observed growth trend of the country.
According to the CEO of peer-to-peer (P2P) platform Paxful, Ray Youssef, the country has exhibited tremendous growth in its trading volume by 400 percent.
These trades, he said were conducted through its P2P exchange.
