Prev.
Slowed down by the period of low volatility of Bitcoin (BTC), P2P transactions involving cryptocurrencies seem to have picked up again in Asia. Moreover, this recovery has enabled new players to increase their market share and signal their presence. Thus, if Paxful has been able to take advantage of the rise in bitcoin prices, China is dangerously seeing India come to compete for its place as the largest contributor to the volume of P2P in Asia. Explanations.
Unlike exchanges, LocalBitcoins offer a bitcoin P2P exchange model that has won over users. Since the implementation of the KYC verification procedure, however, they have lost market share to platforms such as Paxful. Paxful has taken advantage of this to become the largest P2P exchange platform in Asia. With the upward trends in Bitcoin over the last 2 months, there is a noticeable redistribution of market cap in the region. According to data published by Arcane, two countries are leading the P2P exchange volume in this zone with 33% each.
China and India, since they are both involved, are neck and neck in this contest, whereas China been in the lead in previous years. The performance achieved by India is due to the multiplication of P2P exchange platforms in the country. On the other hand, China has seen a decline in the form of P2P platforms, especially since the ban on buying bitcoin in Chinese yuan. While the trading volume observed in China has dropped to 5 million dollars per week, that of India is only increasing. This could make India the largest contributor to the continent’s P2P volume.
In 2019 alone, India transferred a total of $83 billion in remittances, according to World Bank data. This figure represents about 2.9% of the country’s total GDP and makes it one of the largest recipients of remittances. Faced with the horrors of the COVID-19 pandemic, the population turned resolutely to Bitcoin in order to maintain the momentum gained the previous year. Several exchanges such as Binance supported this much more convenient method of payment. As a result, the weekly P2P transfer volume in India increased by 87%.
Despite an unfavorable regulatory framework, India seems to have definitively adopted this formula, which will eventually make it the holder of the largest P2P exchange volume in Asia. Things should accelerate at the end of the year with the bull market cycle that bitcoin is currently experiencing.