Ray Youssef said gift cards had many advantages: they did not require a bank account, ensured privacy, and allowed users to access cryptocurrency within minutes. | Credit: Derek Fenech
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Key Takeaways
Gift cards have become a critical crypto onramp in regions where banking access remains limited or unreliable.
Crypto adoption in the Global South focuses on utility, not speculation, driven by payments, remittances, and currency stability.
What began as a workaround in Africa now operates globally, with crypto gift cards appearing in retail stores across Europe.
The scale of the gift card market shows growing demand for accessible finance, where geography and traditional systems no longer define opportunity.
The most practical crypto economy did not emerge from Wall Street. It emerged at checkout counters, on mobile phones, and in supermarket aisles.
Worldwide gift card sales are estimated to reach $1.2 trillion by the end of 2025 and
increase to $3.8 trillion by 2034. How significant is that number? $3.8 trillion is bigger than France’s GDP. Only six countries have higher GDPs.
In 2023, approximately 50% of consumers in the United States reported planning to buy gift cards because they are convenient, making it the leading reason why American shoppers purchase them.
Most people use these cards for everyday purchases, such as cosmetics, groceries, and even travel. But could they also be used to buy crypto?
The answer is already emerging in the Global South, where millions rely on gift cards as their first step into the digital asset economy.
When Demand for Crypto Met Broken Banking Systems in Africa
A decade ago, I spent a lot of time online talking to Africans about how they could get Bitcoin (BTC). I had just co-founded my first peer-to-peer (P2P) platform, Paxful, and we soon realized there was massive demand for crypto in the Global South, especially in Africa.
Accessing Bitcoin has proven difficult across much of Africa, despite strong demand. Cross-border transactions were complicated because most African banking systems didn’t communicate with each other.
It didn’t take long for savvy, young Africans to realize that crypto was a much faster and cheaper way to make payments or send remittances from overseas.
They were even willing to pay a premium for crypto because it saved them time compared to traditional finance, provided they could find a way to access it and it worked out cheaper in the long run.
How Gift Cards Enabled Fast Access to Cryptocurrency
It all started almost by accident. Users who lacked access to bank cards or international payments began selling gift cards, often to Chinese gamers, in exchange for Bitcoin or, later, USDT.
This grey trading corridor grew from small volumes into a massive, sustainable network. By 2020, weekly gift card trading between Africa and China on Paxful reached about $20 million.
The model showed that in regions with limited banking access, people can build their own financial systems using the tools available to them.
Ray Youssef says, “it all started almost by accident”. | Source: Ray Youssef
Gift cards were ideal for this. They didn’t require a bank account, ensured privacy, and allowed users to access cryptocurrency in just minutes.
This is important for the unbanked and for people with bank accounts in countries like Nigeria and Argentina, because they are often at the mercy of wildly fluctuating local currencies.
Exchanging gift cards for stablecoins makes sense when your local currency regularly swings by 20% in a single day.
In some jurisdictions, the unbanked cannot meet Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, and even those with bank accounts often can’t use local currency to buy crypto because it’s not accepted.
Instead, they ask a friend or family member living overseas to walk into a store and buy a gift card. Only the gift card codes are needed.
They then go online to a P2P crypto platform and exchange those codes for crypto, which can be converted into goods, services, or local currency.
Why the Global South Uses Crypto for Utility, Not Speculation
Whether they realize it or not, most people in the Global South focus on the original crypto mission because they use it as intended. They highlight crypto’s utility rather than speculate on price, and that gap still separates usage in the Global South from dominant Western narratives.
Part of the disconnect comes from how Wall Street began treating crypto assets like stocks once traditional institutions failed to contain them.
The negativity of the mainstream press and its scaremongering also contribute to the partially distorted perception most people in the West have of cryptocurrencies.
Question about gift cards and Bitcoin | Source: Reddit
Using gift cards, people in the Global South can access the world of e-commerce without a bank account or the need for slow and expensive international wire transfers.
The Global South is demonstrating to the West how the straightforward process of converting a gift card into cryptocurrency normalizes the idea of using cryptocurrency for everyday transactions, transitioning it from a speculative asset to a practical medium of exchange.
How the Gift Card Economy Is Expanding Worldwide
Recently, the combination of cryptocurrency and gift cards has expanded beyond local use.
Today, gift card trading is big business for shrewd traders, with some making tens of thousands of dollars each month trading gift cards for crypto on P2P platforms.
A major share of this activity is registered in developing countries, where people see crypto as a store of value and a means of exchange, not as an investment.
The geography has also expanded.
This trend is no longer solely a phenomenon of emerging markets and is now beginning to penetrate the West. Here are some examples:
Retail Bitcoin cards in Italy: Physical cards preloaded with €100 in Bitcoin are now available for purchase at regular retail stores.
Crypto gift cards in Switzerland: Mt Pelerin sells physical cards loaded with Bitcoin or USD Coin (USDC), which function like traditional gift cards.
Brand gift cards paid with crypto: On Bitrefill, users across Europe can purchase gift cards from major brands such as Zara, Esselunga, Amazon, and IKEA using cryptocurrency.
Bank-free digital vouchers: CoinsBee allows users to buy digital gift vouchers without using a bank card.
What began in Africa as a necessary alternative to the banking system is becoming a global product operating in the Western world.
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What the Global Gift Card Boom Says About Crypto’s Future
Cryptocurrencies have gone offline and appeared on store shelves, becoming as accessible as buying bread.
Gift cards allow cryptocurrency to return to its original role,and that’s part of the reason decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are taking an increasingly larger share of the crypto trading pie compared to centralized exchanges (CEXs).
The massive volume of gift card sales is evidence that we are winning over the true believers, those people who see crypto as a tool to level the playing field, and that means making transaction costs the same without checking the color of your skin, or providing entrepreneurial opportunities without checking the color of your passport.
Disclaimer:
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to CCN, its management, employees, or affiliates. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice.
About the Author
Ray Youssef
Ray Youssef is a prominent entrepreneur and humanitarian in the global crypto industry. He is the founder of NoOnes, a P2P platform designed to expand financial freedom across emerging markets, and a former CEO of Paxful, one of the world’s largest P2P Bitcoin marketplaces.
Youssef has focused his career on building tools that empower underserved communities, particularly in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. His work combines advocacy for crypto adoption with a strong stance against financial censorship, making him a leading voice on how digital assets can transform access to money in the Global South.
