Paxful releases insights into the Russian market; shows an uptick in trading activities
July 30, 2020 — Paxful, a leading peer-to-peer bitcoin (BTC) marketplace that aims to provide financial inclusion around the globe, released today some data on the use of its peer-to-peer trading platform in Russia. The numbers reflect a growing interest in the use of P2P bitcoin trading platforms and come on the heels of recent news of Russia turning to cash and bitcoin during the pandemic in efforts to combat inflation. Paxful has only recently given attention to the Russian market in late 2019.
The country’s stance on cryptocurrency is not entirely clear, and as of recently, its state Duma released a proposal to further regulate digital currencies. Coupled with the economic distress of the coronavirus, which has weighed heavily on its citizens, a charge to an alternative finance system has become more than apparent within the region.
Some of the most significant numbers include Paxful’s year-over-year (YoY) growth in revenue from trading which points to an influx in cryptocurrency use. From the period of 05/2019 – 05/2020 Paxful has seen a +350% YoY increase in usage. Broken down month-over-month (MoM) during the COVID-19 pandemic and as a result of questionable traditional finance practices, Paxful saw +50% MoM for May, +41% MoM for April, +34% MoM for March, with the last 3 months average +42% MoM, each consecutive month was the highest all-time, with July set to surpass June the highest month yet. Additionally, there was a spike in new users YoY up +365% for the same period.
“Crisis aside, Russia has always had a monolithic banking system that is dominated by a few players, and the sentiment we get is that Russians are increasingly looking to find alternative ways to grow their earnings and participate in the financial markets. Bitcoin within the P2P context allows them much more freedom to do so – and our data is proving it,” said Anton Kozlov, Paxful’s Manager for the Russian market.
Paxful is now seeing an average monthly trading volume of $4M in Russia, compared to other peer-to-peer marketplaces, this number exceeds expectations and promises a bright future for P2P trading in the country. The payment methods leading in the region are gift cards, online wallets, bank transfers, and credit/debit cards.
The company recently announced that globally it hit 4.5 million registered wallets, reached 4.6 billion USD in trading volume, and reduced dispute levels to under 1%. Since inception, they have added 1 million users per year and so far in 2020 and are on track to sign up an additional 2 million users by the end of the year.
