Regulation
interest in Bitcoin remains high in Nigeria
Despite the recent introduction of new regulations in Nigeria that would result in the suppression of P2P crypto exchanges, attention and interest in Bitcoin remains unchanged and generally high in the African country.
According to the latest data from Google Trends, the strict regulations proposed by President Tinubu and pressures against cryptocurrency activities have not affected the sentiment of the Nigerian population, which, thanks to Bitcoin and stablecoin, manages to survive to inflation.
Let’s see all the details below.
Nigeria and crypto: interest in Bitcoin remains stable and not influenced by strict regulations
May 7 Bloomberg reported the introduction of a new regulatory framework in Nigeria where peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto exchanges have been banned, with President Tinubu motivated to strictly regulate and put pressure on the digital assets sector.
None of this has changed feeling of the Nigerian population regarding Bitcoin and crypto, interest in which remains generally high.
In fact, according to Google Trends statistics, Nigeria still represents the biggest crypto stronghold in Africawhere searches for coins like Bitcoin on the search engine are daily.
In fact, it becomes the first country to show interest in Bitcoin and crypto, followed by the crypto hub of El Salvadorwhere President Nayib Bukele is particularly proactive in supporting this type of alternative economy.
Results from the last 5 years for the search query “bitcoin” in Nigeria.
Source: https://trends.google.it/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=NG&q=bitcoin&hl=it
The geographical analysis of the study highlights that Delta State is the area most involved in this type of research.followed by other states such as Anambra, Ekiti, Enugu, Ondo, Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Osun, Edo and Imo.
Surprisingly, Lagos, the commercial hub of Nigeria, does not show a great desire for Bitcoin, so much so that it is not among the top 15 cities in terms of interest in Google Trends searches.
This confirms the thesis according to which Bitcoin and other crypto manage to find fertile ground to take root within a society in daily exchanges, and more generally in culture, where we find a high percentage of people excluded from basic financial services and where there are levels of inflation. out of control.
In Nigeria in particular, the middle class is seeking to protect their initial savings from inflation by using Bitcoin and Tether (USDT).
This polarization between the government and citizens on the subject of cryptocurrencies could cause strong internal tensions.with President Tinubu motivated to support oppressive regulatory standards by banning P2P trading and the Nigerian population increasingly inclined to use the mentioned alternatives rather than the Nigerian Naira.
The regulator’s tough stance was demonstrated earlier this year when it imposed a ban on Binance operations in Nigeria, followed by the arrest and detention of its senior leaders, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla.
Additionally, Nigeria’s Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Binance of market manipulation, accusing it of contributing to the devaluation of the naira and necessitating government intervention.
It is also worth noting that in the country, banks still cannot hold virtual assets in their wallets and trade cryptocurrencies on behalf of their clients.
Bitcoin primarily caters to the unbanked and millennials
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, Bitcoin and crypto generally gain more traction in populations like Nigeria, where there is a high concentration of the so-called “”unbanked»that is, adults who do not have their own bank account and cannot access basic financial services.
In this case, cryptocurrencies like Attached represent a valid alternative solution because they allow the exchange of values in P2P, without any state censorship affecting the successful completion of transactions (with the exception of censorship internal to Tether).
Additionally, Bitcoin and society attract greater interest among millennials than other generation types.where the technological component has not yet reached the sphere of money and personal finance.
Concerning Nigeria, according to According to a United Nations study, the country is currently one of the youngest in the world and at the same time one of the fastest growing countries in Africa, with 43% of the population under the age of 15.
Another factor to take into account to understand where the crypto-economy finds the most interest is the level of inflation of a country and the solidity of the state currency.
Returning to the example of Nigeria, in this context the sharp devaluation of the naira, which has fallen by 86% against the euro since 2016, has pushed citizens to consider alternative options to preserve the value of their assets.
If in the West we are used to seeing the purchasing power of our account more or less always the same (with the first alarm signals ringing here too), we cannot say the same about Nigeria, where at any time the value of the population’s sacrifices could be worth 20% less.
Concerning the ability to maintain value as an asset store of valueBitcoin remains the preferred choice of Nigerians.
Regarding the use of a currency for daily transactions, Nigerians do not use the lighting networkbut prefer to rely on Tether, which currently dominates the local trading market, especially after the diaspora regulations that prohibit P2P trading.