CAIRO: Egypt’s first bitcoin exchange will go live later this month, the founders of Bitcoin Egypt said, linking the Middle East’s most populous country with a cryptocurrency that has surged in value in recent months.
Many governments around the world are still mulling how to regulate and classify bitcoin, a volatile digital currency that has captured the interest of speculative investors worldwide as its value has soared, roughly quadrupling since the start of 2017 and trading at around $4,400 on Thursday.
Egypt, most of whose 93 million people have no bank accounts but where electronic payments have grown in recent years, lacks regulations for digital currency. This means local retailers cannot accept it as payment but users on an exchange may be left to trade freely, potentially cashing in on its ascent.
“We’re still waiting on the Egyptian government to set some kind of regulations... Without any laws, bitcoin is not legal money in Egypt,” said Bitcoin Egypt founder Rami Khalil.
He said the exchange has picked up about 300 pre-registrations from users ahead of its launch.
The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority, the country’s financial markets regulator, did not respond to requests for comment.
Khalil and co-founder Omar Abdelrasoul see their platform connecting a community of several thousand bitcoin enthusiasts who will for the first time be able to trade in Egyptian pounds, which have roughly halved in value since November after flotation under an International Monetary Fund loan programme.
“Crypto assets are happening whether (the Egyptian government) joins in or not. And by not joining they’re missing out on a very big market. Currently bitcoin is about a $70 billion market,” said Khalil.
Cryptocurrencies allow anonymous peer-to-peer transactions between individual users, without the need for banks or central banks. — Reuters
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