Middle East and North Africa are fastest-growing crypto markets: Data

From institutional crypto usage in the United Arab Emirates to remittance payments in the Egyptian market, the last year revealed major growth for crypto in the MENA region.

Emerging markets continue to forge their way into the crypto scene finding a plethora of use cases, especially in the combined Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

A new report from Chainalysis reveals that the crypto market in the MENA region is the fastest growing in the world. Transaction volume in the MENA region reveals users received $566 billion in crypto in the time frame of July 2021 to June 2022. This is 48% more than the previous year.

MENA is followed by Latin America and North America with a growth of 40% and 36% respectively.

This region is made up of approximately 22 countries which include emerging markets such as Morocco, Egypt and Turkey. In these countries, the usage of cryptocurrencies finds practical use cases in savings preservation and remittance payments.

In countries such as Turkey and Egypt, which have both faced major devaluation of their local fiat currencies, crypto usage for savings preservation and remittances is especially dominant. 

Within the timeframe of the report, Egypt’s tripled transaction volumes can be accredited to local economic volatility. It has a year-over-year growth of 221.7% in crypto transaction volume. Turkey is the largest crypto market in the region with $192 billion in crypto received within the reporting period.

The wealthier countries of the MENA region, such as the Gulf nation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which is home to the crypto haven of Dubai, have also been contributors to the local crypto scene though in a different capacity. 

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According to the report both Saudi Arabia and the UAE made it into the region’s top five countries in terms of received crypto value.

When it comes to these Gulf nations, however, crypto can be seen more in large institutional usage rather than person-to-person payments like remittances. 

Major crypto companies like Binance have received approval to set up operations in the UAE’s Abu Dhabi and Dubai, along with the neighboring country Bahrain.

A local partnership with Bianance Pay in the UAE has even allowed local entrepreneurs can set up businesses using crypto.