The rise of cryptocurrency in Nigeria is not new. In fact, Nigeria has been a purposive location for the crypto market despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s crypto ban. Regardless, Nigerians have continued to adopt cryptocurrency at a massive scale.
How Popular Is Cryptocurrency In Nigeria?
According to the Chainalysis report in 2021, it was revealed that the crypto market in Nigeria grew by 1200 per cent in one year. In the same year (2021), it was also revealed that Nigerians traded an estimated 316.9 billion Naira ($763 million) worth of Bitcoin, with over six(6) million crypto transactions and 16,000 transactions per day on Paxful alone. The peer-to-peer crypto trading platform said that Nigeria was the number one country on its platform that year.
As of late 2021, it was reported that about 34% of the Nigerian population had traded cryptocurrency in the last 6 months. These reports place Nigeria among the top countries globally in terms of crypto transactions. The numbers are big and don’t seem to stop or reduce despite the crypto ban in Nigeria .
Cryptocurrency has not been accepted as a legal tender yet in the country and as known, the Nigerian government is very unfriendly to crypto and its transactions. However, crypto experts believe that the country has to be cautious about its take on cryptocurrency and call off the ban for the betterment of the country.
“Nigeria may one day accept cryptocurrency as a legal tender, and if so, it should be now!” Experts say.
