Australia’s Bitcoin Exchange Igot Expands To Africa

Written by Dana Sanchez

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With an eye on the global remittance market, Australia-based bitcoin exchange igot has secured a partnership in Kenya and will launch there soon, Coindesk reports.

Kenyan customers will able to cash out from their igot accounts directly to the country’s M-Pesa mobile payment system, igot CEO Rick Day told Coindesk.

Igot announced it is opening for business in more than 40 countries including in Africa, the European Union and parts of the Middle East.

The global remittance market has been one of igot’s main targets, and that’s why the company is targeting the Middle East, with its large populations of foreign workers who are mainly drawn from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, Coindesk reports.

The firm launched the United Arab Emirates’ first bitcoin exchange in Dubai in August and plans to expand into Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

A “full-fledged remittance strategy” will launch soon with a bitcoin backend, allowing transfers a less-than-1-percent fee to bank accounts in igot’s existing markets, Day said.

The exchange has “solid banking relationships” in the E.U. with more than 100 banking options for users to choose from, Day said.

Customers in 40 countries serviced by igot will have full access to all

exchange features, and be able to deposit and withdraw from their local banks, Coindesk reports.

The only service not available outside Australia is igot’s bill-payment

service which accesses the country’s BPAY network.

Igot does not charge fees for withdrawals or deposits. In an aggressive drive to get new customers, the exchange recently dropped its selling commission to 0.5 percent and its buying price to 0 percent.

Since the new pricing scheme launched, trade volumes jumped 400 percent to a daily 1,200 BTC and customer signups are showing a new diversity among bitcoin users, Day said.

“A lot of older people and female customers have started signing up. This shows that bitcoin is going mainstream for sure,” Day told Coindesk.

Given the speed bumps encountered by other multinational exchanges like BitX over regulatory compliance and banking procedures in different jurisdictions, Igot’s expansion has been rapid, Coindesk reports.

“We spent months working on this,” Day said. “We’ve secured solid banking relationships, as well as worked with the right partners in each jurisdiction to make sure we’re completely compliant in those regions.”

Igot is redesigning its home page to reflect its new international reach. It is expected to go live next week.

Igot’s largest markets are Australia and India, where it has a subsidiary office. Liquidity in India, Day said, has “improved dramatically” in the past couple of months.

UAE to India is the strongest remittance channel, though the U.A.E. market overall sees a higher volume of bitcoin sell orders than buys, Coindesk reports.