It is said that many Egyptians are turning to Bitcoin amid the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Not a few are making profits.
"The massive shift from ordinary businesses to online (online) at home, along with reduced working hours and curfews, prompted thousands of Egyptians to invest their free time in unusual businesses, such as mining and trading crypto assets, especially Bitcoin," said Muhammad Abd el-Baseer, an Egyptian crypto asset miner.
He also argues, this is the impact of their adoption in 2019 and early 2020. At that time the price was still low and this year it was trying to get a high profit.
Another crypto asset miner said he chose this business after losing his job at a contracting company due to downsizing. He claims he can survive because of Bitcoin.
Wael al-Nahhas, economist and financial advisor at a number of investment institutions in Egypt, does not doubt that fact. According to him, unemployment and recession due to COVID-19 are the main reasons behind the tendency of young people to enter Bitcoin trading and mining.
The unemployment rate in Egypt jumped from 7.7 percent during the first quarter of 2020 to 9.6 percent during the second quarter. More than half a million Egyptians have lost their jobs.
A number of Bitcoin miners admit that the business field of Bitcoin mining and trading attracts thousands of Egyptians, because they don't need a lot of capital to get started.
Many young Egyptians started investing small amounts, even though the price of Bitcoin was increasing many times over.
Although there are no specific regulations, mining Bitcoin in Egypt is not prohibited by the government at all. Even a number of crypto asset exchanges in the country are open to anyone who wants to exchange Bitcoin into regular currency.
However, according to Ahmed Shuair, Lecturer in Economics at Cairo University, the Central Bank of Egypt is expected to immediately legalize crypto assets, which have been designed since January 2020.
Shuair also highlighted that in the future many Egyptians will withdraw from this business, once they feel a decline in profits when this market reaches saturation point.
"This will make Bitcoin price spikes less profitable, as happened to fiat currencies," he concluded.