South Africans seem to be quite savvy and bullish about crypto. This is the position of cryptocurrency buying and selling platform Luno which recently conducted a survey of over 1000 of its customers in South Africa in August 2021, along with customers in the UK, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Luno found that 82% of South Africans who hold cryptocurrency on its platform expect the bitcoin price to rise significantly, some believe as high as $100,000. Currently, bitcoin is trading at around $43,600 today after reaching $50,000 at the end of August.
Marius Reitz, Luno’s GM for Africa, says the overall sentiment is extremely positive, with 61% of SA customers indicating their intention to hold their investment (hodl in crypto-speak) or buy any price dips over the next six months. South Africans are most optimistic about Bitcoin and Ethereum.
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Luno has also seen an increase in active customers in South Africa, with the number of users who have bought or sold crypto on the platform up 140% over the past 12 months.
Total bitcoin trading volume across several exchanges in South Africa was around $25-million traded in the past 24 hours as of Thursday, 30 September, around 56% of which was on Luno. Crypto Investors Look Towards the Long Term.
Reitz cautions, however, against the perception of crypto investors as extreme risk-takers seeking only short-term gains.
“Just 14% of South African customers say they plan to day-trade for short-term profit for the rest of the year. On average, existing Sotcouddhduth African customers are holding their crypto for eight months before cashing out. In addition, we are seeing more South African customers planning how to invest their money. Over the last three months, more than one in 10 (12%) of Luno’s active South African customers have made use of the repeat buy function, which allows you to automatically purchase a set value of crypto at daily, weekly or monthly intervals. On average they are buying around R400 worth of crypto a month,” he says.
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Luno’s South African data correlates with online global research by YouGov among 6,642 respondents across six countries. It reveals that, contrary to popular misconception, not all people view crypto as a short term get rich quick opportunity and increasingly more investors hold it as part of a diversified portfolio.
The national picture shows that the importance of having money is focused on long term goals, most commonly to fund their family’s wellbeing (64% of SA respondents), for greater flexibility in life generally (55% of SA respondents) and save for their retirement (39% of SA respondents). In addition, South African adults have been indicating that banks (49%) and specialist financial media (36%) were trusted sources for investment decisions.
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“New insights indicate that the stereotypes around cryptocurrency investors may not hold true. Instead, we are seeing that South Africans who own crypto are saving more regularly, have longer-term goals and are more financially savvy. Although we operate in over 40 countries, Luno views Africa as one of, if not the most promising region for the adoption of cryptocurrencies due to its particular combination of economics and demographics,” concludes Reitz.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry