Crypto apps hit all-time-high last month as bull market roars

By Dan Howarth

Mobile-based crypto trading is becoming ever more popular, with every new month topping the last in terms of daily active users and new signups, according to a recent report by Apptopia. 

Mobile crypto apps leading the charts include Coinbase, Blockchain Wallet, Binance, and overall growth is up 81% compared to August last year. The year-on-year growth is increasing, too: between July 2018 and July 2019, year-on-year growth was just 12%. 

The site said on Friday that on August 20, Coinbase and Crypto.com hit all time daily highs, at about 969,000 and 576,000 daily active users respectively. Small apps are also booming.

“July is the best performing month on record for this market, and August has the potential to beat it,” said Apptopia in its blog post. 

So...why the rise? Apptopia pins the spike in volume down to the coronavirus pandemic. Bored indoors, people turned to crypto. 

A graph showing small crypto apps YoY growth in July 2020. Apptopia

The obvious reason for this isn’t just the wonders of decentralized ledger technology, but the rise in the price of crypto. Many consider Bitcoin a safe haven asset, and though the price halved around mid-March to about $4,000, it bounced back stronger than it has done in years. 

Little surprise, then, that new installs of the top ten crypto apps hit its highest in May and July, when this year’s bull market really kicked off. It might also have something to do with the boom of decentralized finance (DeFi), which took off this summer, with investors pouring about billion dollars into its smart contracts almost every week. 

Apptopia also suggests that crypto has boosted in popularity across Africa. Crypto popularity is growing in South Africa, Ghana and Kenya, with demand also emerging from Nigeria according to CEO of Yellow Card, Chris Maurice.

Over the last three months, new app installs on Crypto.com have risen 339% out of Nigeria alone, while Coinbase’s figures have also shown a sharp increase. 

But it’s not just in Africa. Hong Kong is also hot for crypto, with a crypto trading app proudly sitting in the top 10 most popular apps on the Google Play store.

Across the US and UK, crypto is riding the tailwind of mainstream apps; Cash App and Revolut, for instance, both support crypto and are two of many helping making it more accessible. 

Cash App, a mobile app that facilitates sending and receiving money have also opened its doors to crypto, boasting 1m downloads on the Google Play store and proudly taking the throne as the #1 finance app on the Apple store. While Revolut, a challenger bank that also sells Bitcoin, has reported a 2.5x increase in crypto trading through its app, despite also experiencing losses of $140m this year. 

With the popularity of crypto growing around the world, and accessibility issues a thing of the past, is the world of digital currencies poised to reach new heights?

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