How Can Crypto and Blockchain Technology Contribute Meaningfully to Tackling Financial Exclusion?

Cryptocurrencies feel to many like a relatively modern phenomenon, with some of the biggest names in the industry – like Bitcoin and Ethereum – having emerged around a decade ago, between 2009 and 2015. However, blockchain, the security technology upon which crypto is built and based, was actually conceptualised as far back as the early 1980s, with early renditions of the idea of a cryptographically secured chain of blocks often attributed to the likes of David Chaum, Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta, and later, Stefan Konst.

It’s only really been over the last decade, however, that crypto has been widely adopted all around the world, resulting in a significant boom in the industry and the emergence of a plethora of new cryptocurrencies, trading platforms and more. These days, crypto can be (and is being) used for a range of different purposes, including saving capital, making investments and even making everyday transactions.

But, is crypto only for people who have extra money lying around or is there an opportunity for it to be used to contribute meaningfully to broader societal needs?

 

Who’s Using Crypto?

 

At the forefront of the inital crypto boom was the global middle class, starting off with a largely North American and European demographic, with later adoption by users in parts of Asia, slowly trickling down to the rest of the world. Essentially, almost overnight, crypto became a massive thing for middle-income, tech savvy individuals mostly from Western countries. Not the uber wealthy, but certainly middle class and above.

We’re talking the sterotypical “crypto bro”, using Bitcoin and the likes to profit off relatively modest investments – but, investments (that is, “spare” capital) nonetheless. Of course, it wasn’t only preppy crypto bros pumping money (while pumping fists) into these unpredictable, digital currencies – plenty of people with even just a little bit of money to spare started playing the odds with the hopes of hitting it big and making millions, or, at the very least, walking away with a little bit of profit.

But, recent trends in the industry are showing broader adoption of cryptocurrencies around the world by lower income users, not only in the countries that adopted the services early on but also in developing countries around Africa and South America, among other regions.

This shift comes as the result of a deliberate effort to increase the scope of use of crypto and blockchain technology. While many initially saw the reality of digital currency as a massive opportunity to interact virtually with large sums of money and investments in order to make significant profits, others started to imagine a world in which virtual money could help people without (or with limited) access to traditional banking services.

 

From High Stakes to High Impact

 

I think it’s fair to say that the perception of most ordinary people and your average crypto user is that cryptocurrencies are primarily a tool for saving and investing, with an additional tool that allows for everyday transactions. But, it’s so much more than that, and crypto holds the potential to make some serious social and economic changes in underdeveloped countries.

One of the biggest challenges faced by people in economically disadvantaged communities is a lack of access to financial services – that is, limited banking infrastructure, geographical isoloation, low financial literacy and lack of formal identification, among other things.

Many people live in rural areas in which banks and ATMs are scarce, on the one hand. And even for those who do have access to these services within cities, for example, many are informally employed, meaning that they don’t have the paperwork banks require to open accounts or access credit.

Without these services, people can’t save money securely, access affordable loans or make digital payments easily. As a result, large groups of low-income individuals all over the world are, for all intents and purposes, financially excluded from essential services that have the potential to contribute to empowerment and economic progress.

Financial exclusion is a highly concerning reality, as it tends to keep people trapped in endless cycles of disadvantage, condemning them to lives of minimal income and ultimately (and most concerningly), generational disadvatage.

At the end of the day, if you’re always starting on the backfoot, how can you progress beyond a low-income reality?

Crypto has emerged as a promising tool that can be (and is being) used to tackle issues of financial exclusion, due to the fact that it has a plethora of practical functions that are so often overlooked.

The likes of Bitcoin, Solana, Tether and a variety of other stablecoins may have been seen as a mere mehthod for investing big bucks, but their eality is that it’s so much more than that, and it has the potential to help financial access to people who have previously not been able to make use of standard financial services via traditional banks.

 

Empowering the Underserved: The Role of Crypto in Achieving Financial Inclusion

 

In looking at the future of crypto, it certainly seems like there are two major paths forward, both of which are fundamentally important in the world of finance. The first is the use of crypto for investments and the like, and the second is providing access to basic financial services to those who may otherwise not be able to participate in the global financial landscape.

Unsurprisingly, this is a massive motivating force behind the establishment of some of the biggest names in crypto setting up camp in developing countries – moving into a relatively unsaturated market just oozing with potential.

In conversation with Hannes Wessels, CEO of Binance South Africa, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange platforms in the world, this sentiment was echoed. I chatted to Hannes at the Sentech Africa Tech Week 2025 conference, and he highlighted the importance of Binance’s presence not only in South Africa but in Africa more generally. He also emphasised the difference in the uses of crypto between Africa and SA, with the latter generally considered one of the most developed countries on the continent, thus in a fairly different economic position to most of its neighbours, both near and far.

Put crudely, it’s a matter of people using crypto for investment purposes versus making payments – that is, so-called “luxury uses” as opposed to basic financial services. This need is backed by cold, hard figures shared later by Wessels during his presentation at the conference, showing the penetration of banking services in South Africa sitting at 85% in 2021, while other African countries are, on average, a lot lower. These numbers are supported by a report published by the World Bank Group in 2024, which asserts that the average banking penetration rate in Sub-Saharan Africa was closer to 49%.

It’s worth noting that while 49% is very low compared to developed countries (which tend to sit closer to 100%), this number has at least improved a lot since 2011. We can’t say exactly how much of that is due to the adoption of crypto services, but it’s fair to expect that futuristic increases will most likely largely be a result of increased access to financial services via cryptocurrencies.

 

 

What Obstacles Stand In the Way of the Use of Crypto in Tackling Financial Exclusion? 

 

While many innitially believed the biggest obstacle to crpyto adoption in Africa would be mobile penetration – that is, access to mobile devices incuding cell phones and laptops – this opinion has actually shifted, says Hannes. In reality, mobile penentration is actually a lot higher on the continent than previously expected, sitting at about 60%, a figure agreed upon by many experts, including Malawian innovator and author, William Kamkwamba. This number is projected to grow exponentially, getting closer to 80% by 2030.

So, Wessels notes that mobile penetration isn’t the biggest barrier to access when it comes to crypto and financial services in devleoping countries. Rather, it comes down to a massive issue that remains at the core of many African countries’ difficulties – education. Or rather, a lack thereof.

If people don’t understand how the technology works and why it’s safe, of course it follows that they’re simply not going to use it. Therefore, perhaps providing people with education on crypto – how it works, why it’s helpful and why the technology is incredibly safe when used appropriately – will allow people to shift away from traditional financial services and into the digital realm.

“It’s about trust”, says Wessels.

Indeed, educating people is the best way to empower them, and in many ways, this approach is a more holistic way of dealing with financial exclusion – providing economically disadvantaged people with the opportunities and tools they need to be able to empower themselves. This is the major motivation behind the launch of Binance Academy that provides free crypto education to hundreds of thousands of Africans across the continent since 2022.

 

Charting a Path to Financial Empowerment in Africa

 

As this shift in the use of crypto in developing countries continues to expand, it certainly seems as though Africa and other economically disadvantaged communities will be well on their way to minimising financial exclusion. It’s not, by any means, something that can or will happen over night, but by engaging with the issue and attempting to deal with the core of the obstacles at hand – that is, low trust due largely to a lack of education – it’s far more likely that meaningful change will be achieved.

The face of crypto is changing, with industries leaders like Binance leading the way, transforming the reputation of the industry and digital currencies as a tool for the upper middle class to make extra money to also being a valuable means for solving (or at least working towards solving) financial exclusion in economically underdeveoped countries and regions.

In fact, in many ways, developing countries in Africa and elsewhere around the world almost have somewhat of an advantage, in many regards, in being slightly “behind the curve” in the crypto industry. It means that not only can these countries skip certain parts of the “trial and error” phase of the adoption of new tech and skip right to the stuff that works (put very crudely), but they can also use other countries’ bureaucratic regulations as a guideline for their own. Of course, we’re not saying that they should be mirrored – every country has its own set of unique needs and more – but it does provide a useful starting point or template to work from, allowing developing countries to “comply as similarly as possible” for the sake of consistency too, Wessels explained.

Ultimately, the use of crypto and blockchain technology in underdeveloped countries is exciting and shows a great deal of potential for dealing with financial exclusion issues going forward and, as always, it’s exciting and inspiring to see technology being used to combat social issues rather than only elevate the lives of the wealthy.