• The West African region accounts for 74.7% crypto interest in the continent.
• Inflation in Nigeria has peaked to its highest in the past two decades.

Interest in cryptocurrencies is spreading globally, however, going mainstream (achieving the status of a fiat currency) is a long way to go. A study focused on crypto adoption in Africa shows that the interest in the region is still nascent. Currently, North America remains the top continent in terms of crypto activities.

Web3 Gaming Among the Common Interests in Nigeria

A research conducted by crypto data aggregator, CoinGecko, highlights crypto interest in the African continent is still at a budding phase. Nigeria accounts for a majority of interest in the sector with 66.8%. The nation has previously been identified as the most crypto curious country. Most searches for terms including ‘cryptocurrency’, ‘Solana’ ‘buy crypto’ and more were attributed to Nigeria since April 2022.

Source: CoinGecko

Web3 gaming, memecoins among others are the most searched terms. The report suggests the rising interest can be attributed to the poor traditional finance infrastructure in Nigeria. According to African Development Bank, a private banking company, the country’s gross domestic product declined in 2022 with oil production being a major reason for the plunge.

Inflation in Nigeria has peaked to its highest, to 18.8%, in the past couple of decades. Moreover, public debt has risen to $103 Billion in 2022. The nation is also the first African nation to launch a central bank digital currency (CBDC), eNaira. However, the citizens objected to its implementation recently following a cash shortage.

Countries including Egypt, Morocco, Ghana and more showed moderate interest in crypto, together accounting for 23.8% crypto interest. Egypt is among the nations impacted by cratering of crypto heavyweight FTX in November 2022, the report mentions.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced in November 2022 that they will sell their stakes of FTT, native token of FTX, leading to increased user withdrawals and eventually the FTX Group’s bankruptcy. News provider Reuters reported in April 2023 that the crypto exchange has recovered $7.3 Billion in liquid crypto assets and cash.

Egypt has one of the worst inflation rates with the June 2023 percent reaching 35.7%. The Egyptian Pound (EGP) lost its worth by 20% in 2023. Furthermore, many citizens are unable to afford the basic necessities of life. The nation also raised prices of subsidized commodities including sugar and rice.

Memecoins Are Popular in Africa

CoinGecko report shows the West African region accounts for 74.7% crypto interest in the continent while North Africa and South Africa 20% combined. East Africa and Central Africa contribute merely 6% combined. Central African Republic (CAR), a country in Central Africa, adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender in April 2022.

Memecoins remain at the top of the watchlist of African nations with Ivory Coast and Morocco accounting for a majority of it. Notably, Morocco has shown keen interest in Ripple native cryptocurrency, XRP.

There are nearly 400 Million cryptocurrency users across the globe currerntly. The number is expected to reach nearly a Billion users by 2027.