Bitcoin trading volume in Morocco continues to soar. At $6 million, it’s the top in North Africa.
Ironically, in 2017, Morocco’s Exchange Office banned cryptocurrencies, but there’s still some appetite to own crypto, at least for 2.4% of Morocco’s population.
The Office des Changes warned, “This is a hidden payment system that is not backed by an organization, the use of virtual currencies entails significant risks for their users.”
However, four years after the ban, Morocco’s central bank, Bank-Al-Maghrib (BAM), appointed a committee to explore the advantages of a government-backed digital currency.
On the same note, Russia is considering launching its digital ruble, a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Peer-to-peer trading
In Sub- Saharan Africa, individuals engage in peer-to-peer or P2P exchanges due to their lack of a centralized authority.
Last year, LocalBitcoins, a decentralized trading platform, recorded high activity offering P2P trading services. The platform allows users to register, buy and sell bitcoin.
In a TripleA report, Morocco ranked fourth-largest in Africa in cryptocurrency trading. It comes after Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.
According to the same TripleA research, there are over 300 million users of crypto worldwide. In emerging economies, such as Africa, most individuals are low-income earners and unbanked. In addition, only 29% of Morocco’s adult population has access to bank accounts. Consequently, it is the most underbanked country globally.
Many in these countries resort to buying cryptocurrency from P2P platforms due to low transaction fees. They are considered faster and convenient too.
In most developing nations, governments have neither restricted nor illegalized crypto. These have enabled the sector to thrive. As a result, crypto adoption in emerging markets such as Sub-Saharan Africa is higher than in North America and Europe.
Despite bitcoin’s price volatility, some investors are buying cryptocurrencies for fear of missing out, while many are clinging to hopes that bitcoin will reach $100k in 2022.
Morocco’s good business post-pandemic
While businesses globally suffered huge losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Morocco’s crypto market surged.
Jukka Blomberg, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of LocalBitcoins, was pleased with last year’s business outcome. He said that February 2021 was the “best month ever”. Impressively, Morocco traded $900,000 worth of bitcoin in LocalBitcoins that February.
“Overall, it seems like bitcoin’s positive trend and growing demand is untouched in Morocco. And looking towards 2021 and beyond there are numerous reasons to be very optimistic about the growth potential,” he added.
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