The onset of COVID19 and the declaration as a global pandemic saw global markets plummet threatening investment and plunging people into financial distress. Furthermore, the prolonged lockdown periods across African economies have seen massive job losses creating unstable income flows.
Traditional safe haven assets such as Gold were not spared either declining in value before recovering in the following weeks. Consequently, the pandemic was an eye opener to investors to seek alternative income generating activities explaining the growing interest in crypto and bitcoin entrepreneurship.
Paxful, a peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace, says that it has witnessed growth in young African women relying on bitcoin to power their business.
For instance, the number of women participating in the cryptocurrency industry rose 43.24 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 according to data from CoinMarketCap, a leading source for crypto market capitalizations, pricing and information.
Women in the age range of 18 24 year olds were the biggest adopters, increasing by about 65%.
In November 2019, Paxful launched the Paxful Peer Program intending to help crypto enthusiasts to become their own bosses. The firm lauds the increasing number of women participating in the program to the increased traffic and usage of their platform.
Tugba Abadan, Paxful Head of Middle East and Africa, says the firm is constantly monitoring the region for female blockchain collaborators, community builders, and problem solvers.
Paxful believes that women will play a lead role in crypto adoption and success in key markets across Africa. Youth unemployment and poverty is rampant across African markets thus Paxful sees blockchain technology as the way to carve paths towards economic freedom.
Young women are gaining bitcoin and blockchain related skills that are allowing them to create alternative revenue streams. Blockchain skills are in high demand internationally thus unlock new career opportunities and give the women an opportunity to venture into business in the future. For instance, there are opportunities in e-commerce, remittances, educational projects, and arbitrage.
As of July 2020, Paxful announced that the platform had reached 4.5 million wallet registrations and $4.6 billion in trade volumes. The platform launched in 2015 believes that bitcoin users in Africa will continue to soar given the high inflation rates, weak local currencies, economic uncertainty, and inadequate financial infrastructures.
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