The ban on peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency trade by President Tinubu’s administration has angered a lot of young Nigerians, but their excitement for Bitcoin hasn’t diminished. The nation with the greatest interest in Bitcoin (BTC) right now is Nigeria, which is Africa’s largest cryptocurrency market, closely followed by El Salvador. These figures are from Google Trends. Based on geographic data, the states with the highest interest in Bitcoin are those in Delta, followed by Anambra, Ekiti, Enugu, Ondo, Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Osun, Edo, and Imo. Notably, when it comes to Google search interest for Bitcoin, Lagos, the commercial hub of Nigeria, is not among the top 15 cities.
According to the research, regions with a high concentration of millennials, limited bank penetration, and an atmosphere of fear are more likely to embrace Bitcoin as a reliable method of making payments and keeping assets. Stablecoins, which are mostly correlated with the US dollar, have been popular with Nigerians as a hedge against inflation and exchange rate swings. Tether is the most widely used stablecoin on the market, and its application for conducting transactions by local businesses and the diaspora is becoming more and more sensible.
Nigeria is currently one of the youngest nations in the world and one of the fastest-growing in Africa, according to a United Nations report. Of the total population, 43% are under the age of fifteen. Recently, the Nigerian government has adopted certain dubious measures in an attempt to alleviate economic problems and avert a currency collapse. The Nigerian government started drafting new legislation in May 2024 that forbade P2P cryptocurrency exchanges that used the country’s currency, the naira. The Binance cryptocurrency exchange has also been charged by Nigeria’s Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) of participating in currency manipulation and speculation, which they allege caused the naira to devalue and required government intervention.
Earlier this year, the regulatory authority shown its strong will to respect regulatory norms by prohibiting Binance from operating in Nigeria and by arresting and detaining two of the company’s key executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla. Anjarwalla was able to elude detection, but Gambaryan was apprehended in Abuja and is currently being tried for tax evasion and money laundering. The Central Bank of Nigeria published preliminary instructions in January 2024 for banks to open cryptocurrency accounts, but banks are still not permitted to trade or keep virtual assets in their own portfolios.