Telegram-based crypto communities grew by 183% in Africa between early 2023 and August 2024.

Pending report ordered by cryptocurrency exchange Bitget predicted that Africa’s cryptocurrency market will reach 54 million users by 2025, with Nigeria and South Africa taking the lead in terms of users.

The report pointed to “economic instability, limited access to banking services, large numbers of tech-savvy youth” as some of the reasons behind the astonishing growth of crypto in Africa.

Meanwhile, the growth of these Telegram communities in Western Europe was much more modest according to the research, growing by only 11% during the study period. The report attributed this to much tighter regulations and a more mature financial services market.

The population of many African countries tends to be much younger than most developed nations in West or East Asia, which could fuel crypto adoption.

The median age in Nigeria and Kenya is about 19 and 21 respectively, according to FBI statisticscompared to 39 in the United States and nearly 50 in Japan.

Many consumers in Sub-Saharan Africa are also drawn to cryptocurrency communities as a result of local economic stability, such as unstable tax regimes or low local wages.

A 28-year-old Kenyan protester said decrypts in July believes that employment in crypto projects can be more profitable than traditional employment, in the country where the average income they are about $634.

These types of activities include cultivating airdrops, interacting with token giveaways, creating content for meme coin marketing, or using games to win.

Pre-existing knowledge about mobile money apps can also play an important role in widespread adoption. The protester explained how most Kenyans will have used the mobile money app M-PASS for their transfers, which means using crypto apps isn’t too big of a step.

However, the growing popularity of cryptocurrency in some countries, such as Nigeria, has caught the attention of the government.

In March 2024, the Nigerian Govt called for the arrest of many top executives to crypto exchanges such as Binance after they claimed to have pegged the country’s local currency, the Naira, and enabled financial crimes and money laundering.

Binance CEO Tigran Gambaryan has been detained in Nigeria for eight months after being arrested in February and released last week due to health issues.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.