Morocco Dominates Crypto Trading in North Africa

Despite the position of Morocco’s Foreign Exchange Office that it will not support any payment system that any financial institution does not back, crypto adoption in the North African country remains very high.

Morocco Leads North Africa Crypto Adoption 

According to data released by Triple A, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency aggregator, around 900 thousand citizens of the country own Bitcoin. This means that the country ranks first amongst countries in North Africa, and it is the 50th largest holder of digital assets in the world.

Another data from a peer-to-peer BTC trading tracking platform, Useful Tulips, also corroborated the earlier data, stating that the country ranked first for Bitcoin trades in 2021 in the region. However, when the data is expanded to the Middle East, the country ranks behind only Saudi Arabia.

Useful Tulips data showed that Egypt is also close to catching the Moroccan BTC trades. Per the data, Egypt is $20,000 away from reaching Morocco’s level in Bitcoin trades on a 30 day period. 

Interestingly, crypto trades are prohibited in both countries.

While the country strictly frowns on Bitcoin mining and trading, a group, Harmattan Energy, is set to build a 900MW wind site in Dakhla, the Sahara region with the intent of mining crypto. However, due to the government’s level of hostility to the space, the group cannot publicly declare the use of its site.

Nigeria Remains Number one in Africa

In Africa generally, the leaders in Bitcoin trading volume have remained between four powerful countries, such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and South Africa. 

Throughout the previous year, quarterly reports of Bitcoin trading always featured the dominance of all of the countries mentioned above. However, Nigeria repeatedly emerged first in 2021, followed by Kenya, while Ghana and South Africa generally battle for the third and fourth positions. 

Despite the concerns of the authorities about issues of money laundering and the fact that the industry was unregulated, the level of economic crises facing the countries like increasing inflation rates have made enthusiasts resort to crypto trading.