Paxful To Expand Access To Bitcoin In East Africa

Paxful, a leading global peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace, has today unveiled its plans to scale up in Kenya and the broader East African region as part of the company’s wider vision of facilitating financial inclusion to the unbanked and underbanked across Africa.

Established in 2015, Paxful enables users to buy bitcoin with each other using more than 300 payment methods, including M-Pesa, Bank Transfer, and PayPal, to name a few.

The platform is one of the world’s largest peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplaces, with more than 2 million users globally and an average weekly trading volume of over US$20 million. As the most popular digital asset, bitcoin is fast becoming more mainstream in everyday lifestyle and business transactions.

Ray Youssef, CEO, and co-founder of Paxful said: “Bitcoin is helping individuals have access to global financial services and participate in a new financial system where traditional banking is no longer required. Customers can pay for items that are in foreign markets such as China, Europe or the US using bitcoin. It is for this reason that Paxful gives priority to providing education and awareness on bitcoin and the opportunities it provides.”

Read: Benefits Of Bitcoin To A Local Kenyan – Paxful’s Perspective

Through its operations in Kenya, Paxful aims to partner with innovation centers, learning institutions and other stakeholders in Kenya and across the region to educate the public on bitcoin and peer-to-peer finance.

“During the first half of 2019, Paxful’s new users in Kenya more than doubled and our number of trades increased by 400%  compared to the same period last year. We have also recorded a marked increase in bitcoin trading in other East African markets and are therefore optimistic about our prospects in this region, as we plan to further deepen our presence”, added Youssef.

At present, 45 percent of the active users of Paxful are from Africa. Paxful trade volumes in Kenya shillings (KES) are significantly higher than usual reaching 14 million KES traded in July 2019.

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