This is the point. I am from Southeast Asia where Bitcoin BTC not approved legally but people are involved with it. The only system exists here is people send dollars from abroad and the native people pay them via bank. Then native people are trying to connect with crypto currency, trade etc.
Yeah, and with the entire Southeast Asia now really embracing p2p, and mostly unafraid to do LBC -- I now see that even foreigners are setting up local bank accounts. Some of the biggest ones have trading accounts in almost every country I can see, a relaxed attitude from the governments certainly help.
Every seller has a buyer. If people can receive BTC from abroad and easily turn around and sell it, that indicates pretty robust buy side demand.
Not that I want to exaggerate the size of the market too much. I am always skeptical of these clickbait headlines. Volume has increased at least marginally, certainly when you consider Paxful volumes in addition to Localbitcoins, but it's nothing that impressive.
Oh absolutely. Though everything is relative. The volumes may look small on a global scale, because they're in USD, but bear in mind that even in Malaysia (second behind Singapore in terms of minimum wage), $200 is more than minimum wage, so the volumes show Bitcoin is really in significant demand here. Take into account a LOT of the trades also happen off books -- Telegram, whatsapp and Wechat, it's also what my preferred traders do after a while for pure P2P -- and it's no joke at least in the urban areas.