In Zimbabwe, the government banned the leading cryptocurrency in the market in 2018, but that did not stop the BTC holders to trade the crypto. Now, about a year after the ban, Bitcoin (BTC) sells for $50,000 in Zimbabwe, unless the traders don’t use peer-to-peer to buy from abroad.
Bitcoin (BTC) Sells For $50,000 Per Unit In Zimbabwe
In May 2018, the only crypto exchange in the African country, Golix, shut down its operations, leaving about 50,000 customers without any reliable solution to buy or sell their cryptocurrency. That was the outcome of the ban that the Zimbabwe government implemented against Bitcoin (BTC) in 2018.
As a result, many offers appeared online for Zimbabwean Bitcoin (BTC) customers or investors. However, the lowest value per BTC unit ranges around $50,000, with some sellers even asking $100,000 per a single Bitcoin (BTC) coin. As for the available payment methods, Zimbabwean BTC traders can only opt for EcoCash, the country’s mobile money solution, PayPal, and Western Union.
Is Africa Going To Adopt Bitcoin (BTC)?
It seems that those who sell Bitcoin (BTC) across Zimbabwe are businessmen who frequently travel to South Africa. And, by the way, South Africa is an African country that offers a Bitcoin (BTC) premium of about $1,000, but only for significant trading volumes.
The Bitcoin (BTC) premium in South Africa is active because the country prohibits people from moving money without authorization, due to the capital controls that the nation instituted recently. Also, supply and demand in South Africa are far behind those of other countries in the world, a fact that could explain the weak economy of the country.
Back to Zimbabwe now, the country is experiencing economic chaos, as more and more Zimbabweans are adopting card-based transactions or mobile money. As the cash operations are increasingly scarce in Zimbabwe, Bitcoin (BTC) traders have to rely on mobile money solutions such as EcoCash. But they fear that the government can confiscate their digital assets, that explaining why one Bitcoin (BTC) unit sells for $50,000 in Zimbabwe.
