Bitcoin P2P trading increases in Zimbabwe post-ban
- Bitcoin was locally trading at as high as $76,000 on P2P site LocalBitcoins.com
- Post ban, Zimbabwe's Finance minister argued that the country should embrace Bitcoin at a state level like Switzerland.
Quartz Africa, a news agency reported that Zimbabwe has witnessed a continued surge in Bitcoin (BTC) trading after the government banned the use of foreign currencies on June 24. The nation is allegedly witnessing a rise in peer-to-peer(P2P) crypto trading as the local exchanges are no longer offering crypto transactions.
Recently, Zimbabwe reintroduced its local currency, the Zimbabwe Dollar (ZWD), after abolishing it in 2009. However, as per the report, Bitcoin has become a more desirable store-of-value than fiat currency. Zimbabweans have apparently been using applications such as PayPal, Western Union and Moneybookers to trade Bitcoin internationally at prices of up to $12,700.
CEO and founder of Golix, a local crypto exchange, Tawanda Kembo reportedly claimed that local demand for Bitcoin is higher than the supply, which inflates over-the-counter and P2P Bitcoin trading. Some media commentators claimed that Bitcoin was locally trading at $76,000 on P2P site LocalBitcoins.com post-ban. According to Cointelegraph, those numbers were apparently indicating the black market for the US dollar that's held in mobile payment platform EcoCash.
Following the ban on crypto transactions, the finance minister of Zimbabwe said that the nation must adopt Bitcoin at the governmental level similar to Switzerland. Recently, the deputy governor of the Bank of Uganda warned the users regarding the risks linked with decentralized crypto, highlighting the limited level of investor protection.
Author
Rajarshi Mitra
Independent Analyst
Rajarshi entered the blockchain space in 2016. He is a blockchain researcher who has worked for Blockgeeks and has done research work for several ICOs. He gets regularly invited to give talks on the blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
