By Mario Egie,
CEO Kite Tech Limited
Africa has the fastest-growing crypto adoption rate with a 1,200% 12-month period growth according to the leading blockchain data platform, Chain analysis. The research by the aforementioned company also stated that Africa has the smallest crypto economy, and highlights four major trends as the factors driving the growing adoption.
Grassroots adoption, increasing popularity of peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms, crypto-based remittance, and crypto as wealth preservation, are the four trends identified.
Source: Chainanalysis.com
Grassroot adoptions were analyzed by retail-sized transactions, and P2P growth which comes from the challenges crypto users and businesses have in doing business with banks. While the latter; remittance and wealth preservation come from the need for a cheaper, and faster method of remittance, whilst wealth preservation, is a result of the devaluation of local currencies.
The Kite Financial wallet has been helping Nigerians trade and spends their crypto on basic day-to-day payments such as airtime purchases, bill payments, and more. However, with the recent update; version Phoenix, Kite Financial has taken a step towards driving crypto adoption, especially at the grassroots level.
The recently released virtual cards on the Kite platform allow users to create and fund virtual cards with cryptocurrency for as low as $5, purchase airtime, buy electricity units, pay-TV subscriptions, and also buy popular gift cards across the globe; which is more than 700+ Giftcards accessible to a crypto user.
This simply implies that users can spend crypto without borders and remit using cryptocurrency. Users can add their loved ones as beneficiaries of the virtual cards and enjoy instant remittance as they can both spend from the same card simultaneously, without borders.
Outside using virtual cards, users can also purchase airtime directly using crypto even for an amount as low as N50! That’s how grassroots it gets. The airtime top-up serves 140+ countries and supports network providers like MTN, GLO, Airtel, 9mobile, Verizone, Orange, AT&T, and many others.
Additionally, users don’t need to own a lot of cryptos before they can access key features of the Kite wallet. With $10, users can sell or buy on the p2p or buy with a direct on-ramp for as low as N500.
A recent message by the Kite Financial shares a summary of 10 things you can do with $10 on the Kite wallet:
Sell Crypto: As mentioned earlier, users can sell crypto on the peer-to-peer (p2p) exchange for as low as $10 and as high as their limits permit them.
Send to friends or external wallets: Users can send crypto within the app using usernames, emails, and phone numbers with zero fees and zero delays, or choose to send to external wallets on-chain.
Buy Airtime: As previously touched on, airtime purchases across popular telcos of over 140+ countries globally, with as little as N50.
Tv Subscription: Cable subscriptions are accessible to Nigerian users using DStv, GoTv, and Startimes decoders.
Buy Electricity Units: Users can purchase electricity units from major providers in Nigeria.
Fund Virtual Cards: Kite cards only accept crypto for funding or kite giftcards, and the minimum amount accepted is $5.
Purchase GiftCards: With a funded virtual card, users have access to 700+ giftcards globally, with brands like Apple iTunes, Amazon, Visa Vanilla, Netflix, and lots more
Swap Crypto: Users can quickly exchange one coin for another using the instant swap feature.
Buy Crypto: With as little as N500 users can start their crypto journey by purchasing with their Naira wallets. Users can purchase via the p2p for as little as $10.
Invest: Users can choose to just HODL on any asset of their choice to gain on their investments.
As far as fostering crypto adoption and providing tailored services aimed at driving financial inclusion via crypto goes, Kite Financial is making its intentions known, as its vision encapsulates, “every individual, financial access, equality & freedom”.
