Crypto use in emerging markets driven by necessity, says KuCoin Labs’ head

Cryptocurrencies are gaining massive adoption in emerging markets, and there might be reasons why the acceptance is growing.

Lou Yu, the head of KuCoin Labs, has revealed that the use of cryptocurrencies in emerging markets is driven by necessity.

Cryptocurrencies have become very important in some emerging economies in Africa, Asia and South America. Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, and Argentina remain some of the countries with the highest penetration of cryptocurrencies.

Yu mentioned this during an interview with Cointelegraph at the ongoing Blockchain Economy Istanbul in Turkey. Kucoin operates in over 200 countries globally and has become one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. 

The KuCoin Labs’ boss stated that;

“We’re seeing all the data here from secondary markets, and we think it is more relevant for local projects to benefit the local economy, and not just take products to the United States to benefit traders there, for example.”

Yu added that the use cases for cryptocurrencies in the developed and emerging markets differ. She added that emerging markets are using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to build tools and products to solve vexing problems. Yu said;

“For developed markets, it’s a hobby, for emerging markets, it’s a necessity. In emerging countries, people are lacking a lot of tools and infrastructure and are probably limited by language barriers, political, geographical, technological and economic barriers.”

She added that emerging markets are more in need of the fundamental infrastructure provided by Web3 as it solves problems that Web2 has failed to tackle. Yu revealed that the majority of KuCoin Labs’ portfolio comprises projects from developed countries. 

She pointed out that projects from emerging economies don’t focus on offering products or services to address the issues within their local market but instead focus on addressing the wider cryptocurrency ecosystem. 

According to Yu, the KuCoin incubator focuses on connecting the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem as they work with other exchanges, launchpads, layer-1, and layer-2 protocols. 

KuCoin is one of the leading crypto exchanges in the world and processes over $1.5 billion daily. 

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