2021-8-23 16:57 |
Afghanistan citizens have been increasingly embracing cryptocurrencies, more so after the Taliban took over the country. A report unveiled this news on August 21, giving the example of Farhan Hotak, a 22-year-old Afghan that resorted to using crypto to hedge some of his wealth against the current economic instability in his country. Explaining why he decided to embrace crypto, Hotak said Afghanistan lacks payment platforms like PayPal and Venmo. As such, he had to think outside the box.
According to the report, Afghanistan relies heavily on cash. This means that Hotak cannot use the funds in his crypto wallet to cater to the day-to-day needs of his family. Nonetheless, he believes holding crypto offers a promising tomorrow in his war-torn country because he can access the global economy from Afghanistan and circumvent inflation.
Another example is Musa Ramin, who has invested a fraction of his net worth in crypto. According to him, crypto proved a viable solution while he was traveling from London to Kabul. After being stuck in Turkey for over six months following a mandatory 1-week quarantine, he converted his funds to lira. Due to inflation, the value of his lira plunged by approximately 50%, leaving him frustrated.
He then discovered crypto trading, and although the journey was rough at first, he got the hang of it and has since held a significant portion of his wealth in various cryptocurrencies. Ramin pointed out that Afghanistan will suffer the same fate as Venezuela if a government is not formed quickly. To ensure he remains safe in the occurrence of such an event, Ramin seeks to expand his crypto investment to comprise as much as 40% of his net worth in the coming year.
Remarkable growth in a yearApart from Hotak and Ramin, other Afghans have shown a lot of interest in crypto. According to Google Trends, web searches for Bitcoin (BTC/USD) and crypto peaked just before the Kabul takeover. However, this tool measures interest based on the number of searches. As such, its data is not reliable, seeing as the number of searches remains unknown.
Nevertheless, the Chainalysis 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index shows that Afghanistan has become increasingly aware of crypto. Reportedly, Afghanistan occupies the 20th position out of 154. By focusing on the country’s P2P exchange trade volume, Afghanistan moves up to the 7th position. In comparison, the country’s crypto adoption in 2020 was so low that Chainalysis excluded it from the index.
Reportedly, this data means Afghanistan recorded the highest crypto growth in Asia over the past year. Moreover, crypto adoption in the Taliban-ruled country surpassed that of every European country except Ukraine.
The post Bitcoin adoption soars in Afghanistan after the country spirals into chaos appeared first on Invezz.
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