Trump's victory drew millions of East Africans to crypto, now they're regretting it

Zawya

17-04-2025

This year is turning out to be different from what many crypto investors in the region, mostly drawn in by US President Donald Trump's victory last November, had imagined.
Trump is himself a holder of crypto assets and his administration was expected to be crypto-friendly, driving up the prices of the unconventional digital assets and booking holders millions in gains.
But, the series of crypto-friendly policies implemented by the Trump administration so far have failed to lift prices back to the record highs witnessed last November, when millions flocked to the space in the wake of his electoral victory.
As of Tuesday, the total value of crypto assets stood at $2.69 trillion, representing a 28 percent loss for investors from an all-time high of $3.72 trillion in November 2024, while Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, has plummeted by over $23,000, or 21 percent, over the five-month period.'This year is turning out completely different than what we thought it would,' said James Mumo, a content creator and crypto investor. 'A lot of us expected the Trump's victory to be a game changer for the industry.'Across East Africa, the hype around crypto assets drew many into the market. Exchanges recorded a steep growth in users over the period, bringing them a boon in transaction fees from the new crypto investors.
Rachel Conlan, chief marketing officer at Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges globally, told The EastAfrican that the company had recorded exponential growth in usage in Kenya since the beginning of last year, especially towards the end.'Kenyan usage (on Binance) has seen almost 1,000 percent growth in the past year and a half, and mostly towards the end of last year,' Ms Conlan told The EastAfrican, but declined to reveal the exact number of users the platform has from the region.
It is not the only one that saw a surge in usage in the wake of Trump's victory. BitGet, another crypto exchange, also reported that its user base in Africa tripled in the last quarter of 2024 and grew by over 1,600 percent in the last half of the year. ByBit, Luno, Yellow Card, NoOnes and Coinbase, which operate in Africa, also reported increased activity from the region.
But as millions flock to the trade, the anticipated gains many of the new entrants were expecting did not materialise, and experts warn that they may not come soon enough.
Trump's dalliance with Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a well-known crypto investor, and later attending of a rally of crypto enthusiasts last year more than doubled the price of the digital assets in under six months, drawing millions into the trade. But since then, values have only fallen.
Last week, President Trump signed into law a bill that rescinded a rule by the American taxman that sought to crack down on crypto users who don't pay taxes. Prior to that, the Trump administration shut down a unit at the Department of Justice dedicated to crimes in the crypto industry.
However, the Trump administration's sweeping deregulation of the crypto industry has only marginally increased their value, meaning that investors drawn to the industry in the November-December quarter are still at a loss.
The series of tariffs Trump imposed on several countries across the globe have also had a negative impact on the crypto industry, as it did on several stock markets around the globe.
For veteran crypto investors, however, the market slump was not unexpected.'If you follow the news, it was expected that the market was going to crash. Trump specifically campaigned saying he was going to put US first, and that was bound to impact the market,' said a local representative of a crypto exchange, who requested anonymity.
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