India Leads P2P Volume Records Among Emerging Markets

Half a dozen emerging markets have established new records for weekly peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin (BTC) trading, including India, Ghana, the Philippines, Argentina, Mexico and Egypt, according to data published by Useful Tulips.

India comprised the strongest market to post a new record for trade activity, with $3.4 million worth of BTC trading hands over the past seven days.

India’s P2P markets began gaining significant momentum from the second quarter onwards, with Indian volume beating out its December 2017 all-time high of $2.95 million last month before consistently rallying above $3 million this month.

African P2P markets continue to show strength

Following several weeks of surging volume, Nigeria’s peer-to-peer markets posted a slight retracement from last week’s record high above $10 million, with roughly $9.9 million.

While the growth of Nigeria’s P2P markets has largely fuelled Africa’s ascension of the regional ranks to surpass all regions except North America by volume this year, Paxful’s CEO Ray Yousef noted that Ghana and Kenya have comprised the second and third-strongest countries in Africa by year-to-date volume so far.

Ghana has posted new weekly volume records for fifteen of the past seventeen weeks, with more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin changing hands for two consecutive weeks.

Argentinian trade doubles in July

The past three weeks have seen consecutive volume records posted by Argentina’s P2P markets as monthly activity has nearly doubled.

While a new record of $585,000 was posted last month, July’s weakest week generated $830,000 in trade, while the past seven days fell just short of $1 million.

The P2P market of fellow Latin nation Mexico also posted its first volume record in 13 months, with $692,000 in BTC trading for Mexican pesos over the past week.

P2P trade up 10x since January in Philippines

Despite consistently producing only five-figures worth of weekly trade throughout most of 2019 and the early months of 2020, P2P trade activity in the Philippines has spiked in recent months.

Philippines peer-to-peer trade exceeded $1 million for the first time this past week, with volumes consistently holding above $500,000 since early May.

Egypt also posted record P2P activity this past week with over $700,000 in trade volume.