Advertisement

Advertisement

Breaking News

Nigeria Ranks Second Top Bitcoin Market After US (See Why And How)


Cryotocurrency is indeed no longer a thing of strange to most individuals even though some don't believe in investing in it.

If you recall, during the peaceful EndSars protests that held in most states in Nigeria around the early weeks of October, the government had shut out most protesters from using local payment platforms in receiving donation supports, but alas bitcoin a.k.a Cryotocurrency was the savior of the moment all through, as needed donations were channeled through this means.

The young, tech-savvy protesters quickly switched to using bitcoin, and in about a week bitcoin accounted for around 40% of the nearly $400,000 raised. It was just one high-profile example of how young Nigerians increasingly use bitcoin to navigate a complicated and restrictive banking and monetary system.

Unbelievably, in the last five years as business reports has it, Nigeria has traded over 60,215 bitcoins, valued at more than $566 million.
Data as informed from Coin Dance shows that from the beginning of May 2015 to the middle of November this year 2020, bitcoin trade in Nigeria increased yearly at least 19% in volume since 2017, and the highest volume (20,504.50) was traded in 2020, which apart from the US, is the largest volume worldwide on Paxful, a leading peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace.

The highest spike of bitcoin trade was recorded this year, 2020 with about 30% increase which was notably during the national lockdown in the country. Between January and September, Paxful reported a 137% increase in new registrations in Nigeria.

Paxful is the largest platform for P2P trade in Africa and overtook LocalBitcoins in June this year to be the Largest P2P bitcoin marketplace in the world, controlling 52% of the market share.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges, which are decentralized platforms that directly connects buyers and sellers without third parties are the most popular way to buy bitcoin in Africa because users do not have to worry about cryptocurrency regulation by the government.

Paxful company reports that Nigerians make up around a quarter of its customer base with 1.3 million registered accounts.

The growing uncertainty and instability around the Nigerian naira, which has had increasingly divergent official and parallel exchange rates with the US dollar, has created an opportunity and practical use case for bitcoin trade in Nigeria.

“The lack of bitcoin liquidity was the first obstacle to solve to introduce bitcoin to Africa,” Ray Youssef, co-founder of Paxful says.

The continuous increased awareness and availability of easy-to-use (P2P) bitcoin platforms to Nigerians have largely increased bitcoin liquidity in the country, therefore solving the first problem hindering adoption. Nigerians now have several formal and semiformal bitcoin platforms to use, ranging from international platforms including Paxful, Binance, and Luno, and local ones such as Quidax, Busha, and BuyCoins. However, long-term watchers say most trading in the country is done on informal channels such as Telegram, WhatsApp, and WeChat.

Bitcoin, was recorded to have initially traded for as low as $3,600 in March due to a massive sell-off on global financial markets, has this month surged past $20,000 for the first time. While in the past, the value has increased like this only to later drop drastically in a few weeks, some analysts say this increase may continue into 2021 as it appears it is due to the growing interest of institutional investors in the cryptocurrency.

Christmas sale
  Everything on JUMIA

Copyright KWARA REPORTERS. All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from KWARA REPORTERS. For more info, Adverts or report call us on +2349064433505 or reach us at infokwarareporters@gmail.com

No comments