Africa as a crypto frontier: Is Zambia one of them?

Regardless of digital currencies’ extreme market volatility and controversies in the past decade, their future remains bright because of the continuous increasing adoption rates in the vast continent of Africa. Its resounding growth of 1,200% between July 2020 and June 2021 has led many news articles and market experts to call it the ‘crypto frontier’.

While Africa’s crypto adoption is the fastest in the world, it still has a long way to go to catch up with other regions (e.g. Western Europe and East Asia) in terms of tech advancements and overall values traded. After all, it is really just in the nick of time because it has long been using mobile money for quite some time.

Hence, digital currencies are the absolute fit for the young and tech-savvy generation. So far, Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya are the continent’s most evidently welcoming countries with progressive regulations.

Along with Kenya, Zambia is another East African country with a great digital landscape, thus explaining its population’s continuous increasing usage over the years. Interestingly enough, it thrives even in the midst of the national government’s outdated and weak regulations. Here, let’s find out the nation’s latest crypto status, so you can start reading further news and tips across many Dogecoin, Ethereum, and Tron blog pages online.

Zambian Central Bank: Bitcoin is not legal tender

Zambia’s latest crypto status was announced around the first week of October 2018. The Zambian Central Bank released their public notice on the press release of digital currencies, indicating that they are not, in any way, considered legal tender.

Unlike other countries that also don’t recognise digital currencies, Zambia doesn’t stipulate punishments for citizens who participate in crypto-related activities. The reason for this is that they understand that they neither have the power nor the legal backing to shut down the fast-rising emergence of the crypto market in the country. Instead, they only reminded of the following associated risks:

• Money laundering
• Financing activities of terrorism
• Fraud
• Hacking

As such, Zambia further emphasised that in the event citizens experience any of the mentioned unfortunate cases, no legal appeals would be available to protect them. This is because the country doesn’t both recognise and regulate all kinds of crypto-related transactions.

5 best crypto exchanges to buy Bitcoin in Zambia

The Zambian crypto market continues to thrive thanks to the easy and readily accessible online crypto exchanges across the globe. These are the digital marketplaces where users can buy and sell digital currencies, as well as exchange fiat money into crypto. In other words, these are marketplaces where the globally decentralised networks of digital assets take place and flourish.

The following list below is the commonly used sites among Zambian crypto users.

1. Coinbase — This is known as the best overall crypto exchange with high liquidity.

2. Binance — This is often the no.1 choice in terms of altcoin trading, as they support more than 150 different trading pairs between digital currencies and fiat-crypto pairs.

3. Kraken — This takes pride as one of the oldest (centralised) crypto exchanges that have never been hacked.

4. Gemini — For people using USD, Gemini offers Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) protection for USD, as well as uses their own currency called Gemini dollars (GUSD).

5. Crypto.com — Interested in coin staking? With Crypto.com, you can earn up to 12% per annum interest due to their profitable Crypto Earn feature.

A brighter crypto future in Zambia

In light of the aforementioned terms, the Zambian Central Bank concluded that they wouldn’t close their doors on the evident growing potential of digital currencies. ‘In line with BoZ’s (Bank of Zambia) position that regulation should not constrain but enable innovation, BoZ will continue to actively monitor all developments’, they said.

This is a positive piece of news for Zambian crypto users. So, ensure that you are always up to date with the latest developments found on Dogecoin, Ethereum, and Tron blog pages online.