The Kenyan government and Central Bank have been discussing how to regulate digital currencies over the last two years. In March 2018, Central Bank of Kenya warned the Citizens about these investments businesses growing wildly across the region.
The Capital Market Authority cautioned the public after investigating a company called Kenicoin that scammed investors of their own toiled money. Despite this, Kenyan merchants and traders flocking towards the crypto assets economy.
The government and financial regulators have been joining hands to regulate the growth of digital currencies. They suggest that crypto currencies have zero oversight and regulators can not help retail investors with financial losses and that this is going to affect their retail business.
Nevertheless efforts laid out by the country’s financial watchdogs cautioning citizens against investing and trading cryptocurrencies. These efforts have been unsuccessful to stop the steady acceptance and rise in cryptocurrency transactions and organisations being recorded in the country in large volumes.
Wide variety of exchange avenues for traders to choose from when in need of purchasing the currencies like bitcoin have been introduced in the country. These trading avenues include, Remitano, Bitpesa, Coindirect, Paxful, Localbitcoins and Belfrics.
Last December 2018, a report from new.Bitcoin.com stated that Healthland Spa in Nairobi stated accepting bitcoins for payments for its goods and services offered. Mwongera, the Chief Executive, explained that this mode of business transaction and payments was is convenient in matters of safety and security.
Kenyans have been using bitcoins to pay for their education, purchase products from abroad and withing the country. Young entrepreneurs have seen it as an opportunity to earn an income. This has helped a number of Kenyan youths to get a self employment by trading the digital currencies.
The youths are preferring trading crypto currencies from the betting sites since this is a real investiments. The money invested in the digital currencies is not lost since the traders can buy the coins and sell them later at a profit.
On the other hand betting lotteries are a loss and gain game where you can lose even your own money. This is the reason why the despite the warnings, the statistics and tale of merchants adoption inducate that Kenyan crypto traders and bitcoins volumes continue to thrive in 2019.
The increased standards of living and unemployment has also led to the increased adoption of this business investments. A place where one can earn and the currencies flow is controlled by the community not an individual.
This year February (2019) a report from stock exchange record that $297,000 were traded on Localbitcoins in Kenya in a life span of two weeks.
Paxful trade volumes in Kenya shillings were also significantly higher than usual with $48,000 traded in a period of just two weeks on the peer-to-peer exchange. According to the stock exchange analysis, bitcoin core purchases recorded were $3,418 in daily trades.
This is a great achievement and the crypto currency world is going to improve trading methods in the country. These numbers give the citizens hope in the technology. Traders and other individuals conducting transactions using crypto currency and blockchain technology now have the faith in safeness and security in cases of theft and fraud from fraudsters and counterfeits in the region.
In cases of import and export traders, they are now able to conduct business without having to carry around their paper works. They are able to track their goods and all the process that they go through during importing and exporting.
This has made the shipping world less complicated and more successful and reliable in the trading industry.
A report from Blockchain Association of Kenya noted that, the non profit organisation believes that blockchain based currencies will reduce transaction cost and boost local remittances in the while conducting unlimited and huge amount of cash transactions.
