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Paxful, a leading peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace, said today that 6.5 million cryptocurrency trades – an average of 17,000 trades per day – were conducted in Africa using its platform in 2018. It noted that the upswing in activity, despite the fluctuating global cryptocurrency market, was driven by services targeted at the underbanked in Africa.

“The aim of cryptocurrency revolution is to make the global economy more accessible,” said Ray Youssef, Co-founder and CEO of Paxful. “And Africa has emerged as a leader in this space with the highest number of new subscribers to the Paxful portal per month. Africans are using cryptocurrency to satisfy both personal finance needs and entrepreneurial ventures; transferring goods, services, and money domestically as well as globally.”

Since reaching a record high in 2017, bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has fallen dramatically. Bitcoin was trading at $3,632.2 on Thursday at about 1700 GMT, with its market capitalisation of $63.56 billion and volume of 5.265 billion.

Cryptocurrencies collectively lost over $480 billion of value last year, according to data from Coinmarketcap.

Paxful said it aims to change the perceptions that held back other consumers in Africa with the reassurance that its trade principles place security at the centre of all operations to cultivate confidence in bitcoin trading.

“There is an emerging generation of Africans buying crypto as investment vehicles into promising blockchain start-ups. A relatively small number of Africans trade digital currencies speculatively for profit,” the CEO of the bitcoin trading platform said.

Paxful’s CEO predicts that governments will pay closer attention to cryptocurrencies. He said, “We expect more activity in the policy development space in the next few years in line with digital currency acceptance.”

According to its statement, Paxful recorded about $69.3 million in the total number of transactions per month, culminating in an increase of 225 per cent new users in the last 12 months.

“The encouraging number of new users gained in 2018 in Africa alone proves the appetite for this technology,” Artur Schaback, Paxful Co-founder and COO said. “We’ve only just begun making inroads and are excited about the future.”

Paxful, according to the statement, aims to continue to lead the charge in demonstrating how bitcoin can be used for good in the society. It plans to grow its #BuiltWithBitcoin charitable programme to encourage the cryptocurrency sector to contribute funds for humanitarian projects with a focus on building schools and providing bursaries for disadvantaged children. Through the charitable campaign, the company built two schools in Rwanda in 2018.