Bitcoin Exchange Paxful Sees 20% 2018 Growth, Driven by Africa

Regardless of bitcoin's price volatility, 2018 saw an explosion of activity among African users.

Revealed exclusively to CoinDesk, the peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange Paxful increased its transaction volume by 130 percent since January 2018 with an average of $21 million a week, compared to $8.5 million in 2017.

The growth was driven in part by Paxful's user base almost tripling in Ghana, with 41,243 accounts, and more than doubling in Nigeria to 321,476 accounts.

According to Paxful CEO Ray Youssef, African bitcoin traders accounted for 41 percent of all of the platform's new users in 2018.

Paxful isn't the only exchange platform benefiting from growing awareness of peer-to-peer finance in Africa.

According to a Google Trends tally of global internet searches for "Bitcoin," Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa were among the top five nations with the most interest in "Bitcoin" throughout 2018.

Youssef said Paxful is looking to hire aggressively in 2019 and establish distinct offices on the ground in East Africa, West Africa and Southern Africa.

Such was the case with Usman Abiola, a Lagos-based product lead at the blockchain startup Ellcrys Network who bought his first bitcoin in early 2018 using a site called BuyCoin.

He's heard of Paxful and said the market is ripe for any exchange willing to invest in educational outreach inside Nigeria.

Youssef said Paxful will partner with schools and universities across Africa to improve educational resources, so that prospective users know what bitcoin is and how to manage their own personal wallets.