13 hours ago
Crypto Corner: Slow growth in crypto payments is a good thing
Many exchanges and payment options are available in the cryptoverse – but none of them, at least in Mzansi, is as elegant as tap-to-pay.
Daily Maverick held a series of morning talks at the Hermanus Fynarts Festival in June. Business Maverick editor Neesa Moodley and I were on stage to discuss the future of money.
There was a pensioner who kept nodding off when the conversation turned to cryptocurrency and the role of bitcoin in an investment portfolio – and I can't blame her, as the conversation was being hijacked by a very crypto-clued-up commenter.
It's a common problem when you don't have any skin in the game. If she were paying for her weekly Pick n Pay groceries with crypto, she would have been more engaged. But that would mean fumbling at the till point with QR codes and payment apps.
As part of its Youth Month dataset, Binance reports that 54% of its user base in Africa is part of the Gen Z demographic. This checks out – Africa has a young population – but at the same time it seems a little low, especially when considering that the platform's growth rate in that age group since January 2023 is 107.6% globally.
The exchange also crossed the 275 million user threshold last month, with 9.1 million of those using Binance Pay identified in the youth segment, which is defined as being born between 1997 and 2012.
The caveat on this data is the many other exchanges and payment options available in the cryptoverse – but none of them, at least in Mzansi, is as elegant as tap-to-pay.
What was encouraging is the revelation that 56% of Gen Zers using Binance are low-volume traders, averaging between one and five trades per month. This tracks with the dual identity of crypto I told the Hermanus crowd about – and broke the snoozing senior from her slumber.
Because bitcoin has emerged as a viable store of value. Dabbling with trying to make a quick buck trading crypto is this generation's version of playing the stock market.
Although the marketing rhetoric will have you believe that the narcoleptic tannie sitting two rows from the stage has nothing in common with tech-savvy Gen Z, they both have similar money motivations.
They're also equally dismissive of crypto for day-to-day transactions because it isn't as convenient as the options already available. But they are also both beginning to see the benefit of savvy investing. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
