todaysgazette.com
Just a decade ago in 2009, Bitcoin made a debut as the first ever functional cryptocurrency in the world. Since then, the world has never been the same, with more cryptos entering the market every year. However, it has taken a few years for the frenzy to really catch on. During the first few years, a great percentage of the people didn’t even know Bitcoin existence, let alone have anything to do with it. That has changed over the years, with the last few years being the most significant.
According to CoinMap, the last 5 years (2013 to present), Bitcoin has made giant strides in terms of acceptance and general awareness. The company projects that Bitcoin acceptance has increased by upwards of 700% in the space of 5 years. CoinMap is a resource firm that monitors crypto acceptance.
South America Takes The Mantle
In 2013 and thereabout, Europe, the US, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan were the hottest spots in terms of Bitcoin acceptance. However, the major areas currently championing the same are mainly South American regions like Columbia, Venezuela, and Ecuador.
Other Areas Catching Up Fast
The publicity surrounding cryptocurrencies has also fostered awareness in other areas in Africa and Asia (mainly China). In effect, Bitcoin, being the most valuable cryptocurrency, has continued to attract much attention and acceptance across these new regions.
According to CoinShares CEO Ryan Radloff, the number of places accepting Bitcoin payments has increased 7-fold since 2013. Ryan used data from CoinMap to illustrate his point. Currently, there are over 14,113 establishment accepting Bitcoin payments across the world. That’s quite a development compared to the measly 1,789 of 2013. The latest figures have been drawn from the time period between December 31st ,2013, and closing on December 31st ,2018. Since December, 200 more establishments have been added to the list.