USA is the leader in crypto classified ads — worldwide analytics research
Cryptocurrency is very popular nowadays; most people have at least heard about the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. Despite this, there aren’t many projects that actually bring cryptocurrencies into people’s daily lives. In response to this, my team and I have developed a new crypto project with a very simple idea — classified ads list for buying and selling goods with Bitcoin and Ethereum. We called it Bitsburg.
With Bitsburg, it was important for us to understand where to begin. In other words, to know what the market for launch should be. After some consideration, we decided that the main goal was to choose the right country, one where society was ready for market relations with cryptocurrency.
We did a lot of work researching this. Step by step, we researched major classified ads sites and forums worldwide. For each site, we searched for specific keywords: Bitcoin, Ethereum, crypto, cryptocurrency, cryptocurrencies, BTC, ETH, etc. Then, we analysed the results and counted the ads that appeared in our searches. Those ads that were about crypto (like mining farms) but weren’t about selling where not counted in our results.
Using the results of our research, we prepared this heat map. You can easily see the relative popularity of cryptocurrency in different parts of the world at a glance.
Unstable local currency does not stimulate crypto ads market
At first, we supposed that countries with unstable local currencies were our main targets. We started researching Bangladesh, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, etc. By our estimation, people in these countries prefer crypto to local currency, because crypto is more stable for usage in daily life. For example, with cryptocurrencies governments can’t take your money in critical situations or control your crypto wallet, but with fiat currencies they can. The news reported that local currency in Venezuela dropped, which led to an increase in popularity of crypto. In response, the government of Venezuela introduced a local cryptocurrency, Petro.
But we were wrong in our initial assumptions. Spread of and interest in cryptocurrency in these countries was smaller than expected. For example, in Zimbabwe we found only 136 ads offering opportunities to pay by Bitcoin on local sites. In Venezuela, we only found 122.
Europe is modern, but not enough
After that, we redirected our research towards Europe. At that time, our working theory was that the European was ready because crypto startups and cryptocurrencies were already popular in daily life. We started research into the biggest Europe countries first, focusing on major local sites like Leboncoin in France, Gumtree in UK, and Ebay-kleinanzeigen in Germany. Results better than from our first research attempt, but still poor: France had 587 ads, UK had 142, and Berlin had 147. While we may have missed some examples, there was enough data to build a clear picture.
Regulation surprisingly helps crypto market
Finally, we redirected our research efforts to North America and saw some surprising results. In the USA, people typically use the incredibly popular Craigslist for classified ads to buy/sell goods. In New York alone, we found more than 2,000 ads that offered crypto payment options. Looking exclusively at Manhattan, we found more than 400 ads, more than in all of the UK. Craigslist even allows users to click on a checkbox titled ‘Cryptocurrency: OK’ and filter their search results for goods available for purchase with crypto. Craigslist understands that people are ready to have cryptocurrency in their lives.
Thanks to our research, we were able to quickly identify our best target market. But this raised another interesting question: why did we see a very different situation in the USA than what we identified in the other countries we looked at?
We identified the following possible reasons:
- It is very easy to buy crypto in the USA. You can do it with only two clicks and a simple verification process from Coinbase.
- The government regulates cryptocurrency markets in the USA and there are detailed records about them. This helps users feel safer an when dealing with crypto.
In Canadian markets, we can also see positive growth of interest in and relationships with of cryptocurrency. We identified hundreds ads with available crypto payments on Canadian sites.
We think that the US market has a lot of potential for startups in the crypto sphere and it is a trendsetter market. We hope that this eventually encourages other countries with large economies to take up crypto more fully.
More products for crypto = sustainable growth
Once people start using cryptocurrency on a daily basis to buy goods and services, crypto markets will stabilize and see sustainable growth.The beginnings of these relationships could very well be found in classified ad market where users sell used stuff from person to person directly.
That’s why our company has made the first steps at this direction by opening bitsburg.com, offering opportunities to buy and sell goods with crypto.
We have tried to make our website beautiful, easy to use, and with great cryptocurrencies related features. For example, users can write price in their chosen fiat currency and our system automatically translates these to BTC or ETH. Publish ads your old or unused goods at Bitsburg or at other sites help cryptocurrency become more popular in the world.
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