Africa is experiencing a crypto boom, with research finding cryptocurrency monthly transfers under $10K jumped 55% YoY, as young tech-savvy users quickly adopt

LAGOS/LONDON (Reuters) - Four months ago, Abolaji Odunjo made a fundamental change to his business selling mobile phones …

Reuters 2020-09-10

Context & Ripple Effects

This September 2020 Reuters report from Lagos — where phone merchant Abolaji Odunjo starts taking bitcoin for imports — is the early signal of what came next: Chainalysis measured Africa's crypto market growing over 1,200% to $105.6B in the following year, with retail-sized transfers making up more than 7% of volume.

The pattern held because adoption was necessity-driven rather than speculative — later research found sub-Saharan Africa has the world's highest share of tiny crypto payments, 80% under $1K — but the same grassroots base proved fragile when FTX's collapse drained consumer trust and shut down African crypto startups by 2023.

First-order effects

Small merchants like Odunjo shift import payments to crypto, bypassing slow and expensive formal channels for everyday cross-border settlement.

Second-order effects

The surge in grassroots usage helps fuel record venture interest in African tech — startup funding hit $4B+ in 2021 and debt deals kept rising through 2022 even as global VC fell.

Third-order effects

A market built on small, necessity-driven transfers is exposed to global platform failures: when trust in exchanges breaks, as after FTX, the retail base retrenches faster than institutional capital does — pointing toward eventual pressure for regulated local on-ramps.

The trend: Emerging-market crypto adoption is growing from practical payment needs rather than speculation, making it both resilient to hype cycles and acutely vulnerable to exchange-trust shocks.

Discussion

@jp_koning John Paul Koning on x
On Nigerian bitcoin usage: https://www.reuters.com/... Key quote: “I don't need anyone in the banks, I don't need a person to use the back door to get dollars.” Foreign exchange is rationed in Nigeria. (42 items are banned from accessing forex!) Bitcoin offers importers a way out…
@gladstein Alex Gladstein on x
@jerrybrito @nic__carter Already a growing number of these folks are finding it most convenient to settle in Bitcoin: https://www.reuters.com/...
@dgbat_official @dgbat_official on x
Interesting! If the Nigerians are smart, they will use DigiByte, as the payments are instantly and the fees are really low and the 7 years old DigiByte proven blockchain can handle a lot more transactions without getting clogged or asking for high fees. https://twitter.com/...
@christophera Christopher Allen on x
Connecting the dots: An article from Reuters in use of Bitcoin in Africa: “they seek methods of purchasing goods from overseas without having to buy dollars.” https://www.reuters.com/...
@reutersbiz @reutersbiz on x
WATCH: In Nigeria, small #cryptocurrency transfers totaled up to $56 million in June, nearly 50% more than a year before. Read more https://www.reuters.com/... via @alexisak https://twitter.com/...
@reuters @reuters on x
A phone trader in Nigeria said #bitcoin transfers have helped him protect his business against the currency devaluation. It is one example of how, in Africa, #crypto is finding the practical use that has largely failed to elsewhere https://www.reuters.com/... via @alexisak https:…
@doubleeph Tyro on x
Good piece. Although, from my very limited understanding, I think the article should have focused on stable coins where the real action is https://www.reuters.com/...
@eajene @eajene on x
A good look from @alexisak at the current cryptocurrency boom across Africa, including actual use cases “The naira's fall has pushed many Nigerians towards bitcoin...as they seek methods of purchasing goods from overseas without having to buy dollars.” https://www.reuters.com/...

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