After losing 44% of its value last year as a result of a currency crisis brought on by rate cuts, the Turkish lira has fallen about 30% this year to fresh record lows.
According to a report released on Wednesday by blockchain researcher Chainalysis, the Middle East and North Africa have the fastest-growing cryptocurrency marketplaces in the world, with the amount of cryptocurrency received in the area increasing by 48% in the year leading up to June.
The MENA area may be one of the smaller markets for cryptocurrencies, but the $566 billion in bitcoin it got between July 2021 and June 2022 indicates usage is growing quickly.
At 40%, Latin America saw the second-largest increase throughout this time. According to Chainalysis, Central and Southern Asia, Oceania, and North America all had growth of 36% or more.
According to Chainalysis’ 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index, three MENA nations—Turkey (12th), Egypt (14th), and Morocco (thirty-fourth)—are in the top 30.
According to Chainalysis, “In Turkey and Egypt, volatile cryptocurrency values have corresponded with quick devaluations of fiat (conventional) currency, enhancing the attraction of crypto for the preservation of savings.”
After losing 44% of its value last year as a result of a currency crisis brought on by rate cuts, the Turkish lira has fallen about 30% this year to fresh record lows.
The MENA region’s largest recipient of cryptocurrency is Turkey, which got $192 billion worth of it in the year ending in June, despite only experiencing a 10.5% rise year over year.
The value of the Egyptian pound against the dollar has likewise decreased by around 25% since the beginning of the year.
The country’s central bank has already started a project to construct a crypto-based remittance corridor between Egypt and the UAE, where many Egyptian locals work. Remittance payments make up roughly 8% of Egypt’s GDP.
“However, their importance to the crypto ecosystem should not be overlooked. For instance, Saudi Arabia is the third-largest cryptocurrency market in the entire MENA region, while UAE is the fifth.
As Taliban officials “equated crypto to gambling,” which is prohibited in Islam, Afghanistan, which was ranked 20th in Chainalysis’ adoption index last year, has dropped to the bottom of the list.
According to Chainalysis, users with an address in Afghanistan received less than $80,000 in cryptocurrency a month on average from November 2021 until the present, down from an average of $68 million a month before the Taliban’s takeover.
