- Cryptocurrency Gains Traction In South Africa
- Most of the Utility In South Africa Comes From The Financial Sector
South Africa has been one of the few countries that have openly accepted the adoption of cryptocurrency. This is not a surprise as the country has its cryptocurrency launched in 2013 known as Luno, which has helped in restructuring the adoption of cryptocurrency. Currently, Luno is available in over 40 countries.
The Luno’s General Manager for Africa, Marius Reitz states that numerous factors are influencing the popularity of cryptocurrency in South Africa. Firstly, South Africa ranks second after Nigeria as the highest number of Google Searches for the term Bitcoin. In his statement, he went thus: “Every day, South Africans buy cryptocurrencies on Luno for the first time, and we’ve seen a surge in the number of new Luno wallets (accounts) this year. Even though the price of cryptocurrencies has declined recently, an average of R90 million worth of Bitcoin is traded in South Africa daily.”
South Africa’s adoption of Cryptocurrency has been able to ease transaction stress of it citizens, Reitz states that “There are large remittance flows from South Africa to other countries in the SADC region, of which a portion is informal due largely to the high costs and complexity involved. We must reduce the cost and complexity associated with moving money seamlessly across the continent.”
Ease Of Conducting Financial Transactions Amongst Other Reasons Influencing Cryptocurrency Adoption in South Africa
Trading and financial infrastructure have been another factor aiding the widespread of cryptocurrency in South Africa, the country presents reputable platforms and has trusted financial infrastructure set in place. Reitz states that “A high percentage of South Africans have active bank accounts, even though we still have some unbanked citizens. South Africa also has high mobile penetration and a well-established financial services market.”
Recent research carried out on Luno across seven major markets like South Africa evaluated several approaches towards the financial system. Reitz went thus: “We anticipate that developing markets will be the lead adopters of cryptocurrency. People in emerging markets tend to be more financially savvy out of necessity. Interestingly, the results of Luno’s Future of Money survey indicate that respondents in South Africa are savvier with their money than those in European markets.”
As the leading country in the adoption and creation of its cryptocurrency in Africa, South Africa’s Luno is soaring as most of the cryptocurrency that was launched around the same period as Luno no longer exist, except Coinbase and Bitstamp.
Also, South Africa has created some universal crypto titans like Riccardo Spagni of Monero known as Fluffy Pony (enhanced privacy cryptocurrency), Custos (content protection) and Vinny Lingham of Civic (ID security platform).
Lastly, South Africa practices fair regulation while dealing with cryptocurrency, the South African Reserve Bank has created a working group consisting of big shots from the industry to work jointly in designing a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency.
