Fifteen US brands doing business in the Caribbean now accept crypto payments in the US market, but with crypto ownership and usage in the Caribbean still only around 1-2%, approval and legislation are likely to slow the spread here, or could lead to an acceleration of things? Let’s look at some numbers and details.
The 15 crypto-friendly and crypto-transactional US brands operating in the Caribbean are:
Fast Food: Burger King, Subway, KFC, Starbucks
Consumer packaged goods: Coca Cola
Tech: Microsoft, Twitch
Global companies using Caribbean people: Amazon, Crate and Barrel, Express VPN, Overstock and Expedia
Now, this green light of crypto-transactions is great news for the United States, where adoption and ownership is reported to be at 13.74% as of 2021, with 46 million Americans owning and using cryptocurrencies.
| United States | 46,020,521 | 13.74% |
But in the Caribbean, while early adopters lead the charge in cryptocurrency use and ownership, the yes 1%, as a region, we are a long way from conducting crypto transactions in person at our local businesses or even at our favorite American fast. food chains.
According to last year’s Triple A report – the top 8 Caribbean crypto-using countries are:
107,752 crypto users in Haiti – 1% of the population
39,214 crypto users in Jamaica – 1% of the population
35,851 crypto users in Puerto Rico – 1% of the population
16,377 Crypto users in Trinidad & Tobago – 1% of the population
5,474 crypto users in Suriname – 1% of the population
3,576 crypto users in the Bahamas – 1% of the population
3,569 Belizean crypto users – 1% of the population
3,022 crypto users in Barbados – 1% of the population
All this against the background of the fact that emerging markets lead the crypto adoption curve.
Emerging markets dominate the core cryptocurrency ADOPTION
According to Chainanalysis, a blockchain data platform: “Emerging markets dominate the cryptocurrency adoption index. The World Bank categorizes countries into one of four categories based on income levels and overall economic development: high income, upper middle income, lower middle income, and low income. Using that framework, we find that the middle two categories dominate the top of our index. From our top 20 ranked countries:
- Ten are low- and middle-income: Vietnam, the Philippines, Ukraine, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Morocco, Nepal, Kenya and Indonesia
- Eight are middle income: Brazil, Thailand, Russia, China, Turkey, Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador.
- Two are high-income: the United States and the United Kingdom”
This research data is quite interesting and is a subset of the bigger picture – which is that we now have around 300 million crypto users worldwide and over 18,000 businesses that already accept cryptocurrency payments.
With over 214,000 Caribbean Crypto holders and America being the Region’s top trading partner and source for millions of tourists each year, could this tie-up spur faster adoption and legislation?
As Bob Marley said, only time will tell.
