Who Are East Africa’s 12 Million Crypto Owners?
The crypto market is reviving after a downturn that saw investors suffer billions of dollars in losses.
Market or financial research institutions estimate that the number of crypto owners in East Africa is currently almost 12 million.
Tripple-A, a Singaporean cryptocurrency research firm, estimates that 11.7 million East Africans own cryptocurrencies: 6.1 million in Kenya, 2.3 million in Tanzania and two million in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Read: Crypto market meltdown enrages 12 million EA investors
But these figures, according to some analysts, paint a picture of a society that is well informed about cryptocurrencies and dominantly financially savvy, which is not the case in East Africa.
David Gitonga, the founder of BitcoinKe, a blockchain and cryptocurrency media center based in Nairobi, said The East African that their engagements with people in the region reveal that few are aware of cryptocurrencies and many have no use for them.
“Crypto ownership is largely determined by knowledge and need. Most people still don’t know how to set up a wallet. At the same time, the need to own crypto is not there, especially in a bear market,” he said in a written response.
Social influence
Gitonga’s sentiments align with a 2019 study done in Spain, which revealed that 84 percent of the differences in the use of cryptocurrencies are explained by social influence, perceived risk and expectations, all of which are linked to awareness and financial literacy.
Another survey done in Malaysia and published by the Technology in Society Journal last month also showed that the level of understanding of cryptocurrencies played a significant role in determining their adoption, along with social influence and attitude.
According to a survey done in Kenya by the Technical University of Mombasa, the level of participation in the crypto market, especially among the youth, is significantly lower than the level of awareness. The survey showed that 97 percent of Kenyans between the ages of 18 and 34 are aware of cryptocurrencies, but only 24 percent participate in the markets.
Gitonga said awareness levels are much lower among older people and rural residents, who are less financially literate, as shown by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics 2021 Financial Access Survey.
As such, Gitonga said, it is illogical to say that crypto owners in Kenya are more than six million, when 74 percent of the Kenyan adult population is financially literate.
“The most reliable source of crypto ownership data is from crypto exchanges. Currently, peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges dominate the Kenyan market and by their numbers, there are often fewer than 100,000 active user accounts trading on all these exchanges,” said Gitonga.
Triple-A did not respond to our inquiry about how they arrived at the statistics on crypto ownership in East Africa and whether they did a primary survey to confirm their data.
No primary data
According to their website, they weighted 16 reports and surveys to arrive at their statistics and did not register accounts on crypto exchanges in the region.
In addition, none of their reports state whether there was specific primary data collection in the region.
Chainalysis, an American crypto research firm, whose statistics are also often cited, also does not use the number of registered accounts to determine crypto ownership statistics. Instead, they consider the volume of transactions made in African currencies on popular exchanges.
Also read: Illegal crypto transactions reached a record high last year
“Most of the research on crypto ownership is biased because it seeks to appeal to investors for funding. They are also mostly conducted by foreign firms that reproduce wrong numbers that are not authenticated,” Gitonga said.
Our attempts to access data on the exact number of registered accounts in East Africa were futile. According to Gitonga, there are about 500,000 active accounts registered in Kenya, barely a tenth of the estimate.
