A growing number of Egyptians are reportedly turning to bitcoin amid rising unemployment and the economic crisis. An Egyptian bitcoin community is seeing a huge spike in the number of members interested in bitcoin mining and trading.
Egyptians Increasingly Attracted to Bitcoin
Many Egyptians are drawn to bitcoin amid the coronavirus pandemic, economic crisis, and resulting unemployment, Al-Monitor news outlet reported last week.
A bitcoin mining and trading expert, Muhammad Abd el-Baseer, is a leading member of the Bitcoin Egypt Community, one of Egypt’s professional online communities for people interested in cryptocurrency. He told the publication that there has been a spike in the number of community members, indicating high demand for bitcoin mining and trading in Egypt. Noting that more than 16,000 Egyptians have joined the community, he estimated:
The number of miners in Egypt should be greater, since each one of the 16,000 [members] may train and guide many of their friends, family and neighborhood zones.
He explained that “Online work from home, reduced working hours and curfews have been imposed since March as precautionary measures against the outbreak of Covid-19 in Egypt,” the publication conveyed. “The huge business shift to online work from home along with reduced working hours and curfews are encouraging thousands of Egyptians to invest their spare time in unusual online businesses like mining and trading of cryptocurrencies, most notably the bitcoin.”
Another bitcoin miner, who is a member of several bitcoin and cryptocurrency communities like Bitcoin Egypt, told the publication that he chose this business after losing his job at a contracting company that downsized, following the coronavirus outbreak. He invested what he saved over the past years into the business. More than half a million Egyptians have lost their jobs as unemployment in the country rose
