Binance Makes Headway in Africa Thanks to P2P Trading Platform
Although Africa is sometimes overlooked, the cryptocurrency space there holds a tremendous growth potential, something that Binance sensed a long time ago.
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Uganda was a bust, but P2P trading is booming in Africa.
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Africa is the untapped market, according to CZ.
Uganda was a bust, but P2P trading is booming in Africa
Binance wouldn’t have achieved the status of the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world if its team didn’t work ceaselessly on expanding its global reach. Africa represents a nearly perfect market for the striving exchange platform since a significant part of its population has no access to traditional banking services and deems crypto as virtually the only available path to financial freedom. Binance has already established a strong presence on the continent, but things haven’t always been going smoothly.
Last month, for instance, the company had to terminate its subsidiary in Uganda, a fiat-to-crypto exchange platform that had been put into operation in 2018. The primary reason for the closure was the platform’s failure to comply with Binance’s standards with regard to the trading volume and user activity.
However, this little slip-up didn’t stop Binance in its tracks as the Malta-based company has reportedly achieved tremendous success in another area of crypto finance, the one that offers a seamless peer-to-peer (P2P) trading program, dubbed Binance P2P. In one of their latest blog posts, named “P2P Merchants: Facilitating Freedom of Money in Africa,” Binance boasted about the growing popularity of the proprietary P2P trading platform that has reportedly processed over $280 million by the end of the year. The registered traders can freely buy or sell a host of cryptocurrencies without transaction fees with local fiat currencies, such as Nigerian Naira (NGN), Egyptian pound (EGP), or Ghanaian cedi (GHS).
Africa is the untapped market, according to CZ
Binance praised its P2P traders for being the driving force behind the expansion of cryptocurrencies in Africa. Apparently, these merchants have an opportunity to make up to $350 a day by providing their services to the local population. The blog post also features several stories of successful P2P traders who praise Binance for offering them an opportunity to enter this business with little capital and keep all the profits in the process of trading.
In May, Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, had said that Africa represents an “untapped market” that offers splendid opportunities due to the open-mindedness of its population towards cryptocurrencies, though it also possesses significant challenges, such as the one that Binance encountered in Uganda. The CEO said that Africa is a prerogative market for his company since it has a tremendous growth potential due to the underdevelopment of the financial services sector in general, and cryptocurrency one in particular.
CZ’s arguments were countered by Chris Maurice, the CEO of the Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange Yellow Card. He said that the crypto adoption in Africa is among the most dynamic in the world. This statement is supported by Chainalysis, the reputable crypto research and analysis firm, which revealed that the overall volume of small transactions made in cryptocurrencies has grown by 55% over the current year.