Nigerians Rush to Buy Bitcoin Amid Economy Collapse (Report)

The crash of Nigeria’s national currency (naira) reportedly pushed many residents to turn to alternative assets such as bitcoin and stablecoins to preserve their wealth. Peer-to-peer exchange LocalBitcoins marked a 258% increase in BTC purchases compared to last week’s numbers.

Nigerians see Crypto as a lifeboat

Nigeria’s official currency – the naira – is the latest to experience tough times due to the global economic turbulence. Within a month, it fell significantly against the US dollar, spreading concern among the population.

Panic multiplied when Godwin Emefiele – Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria – warned bank customers, high-profile individuals and politicians to refrain from withdrawing naira to convert it into dollars. He said that a relevant monitoring system will track whether such illegal transactions have been committed and will punish those who do not follow the rules.

The turmoil in one of Africa’s leading economies prompted many Nigerians to search for investment options that could serve as a hedge against inflation. In particular, they focused on bitcoin and stablecoins.

The popular P2P trading platform – Paxful – confirmed that citizens of Nigeria have shown a growing appetite for crypto during the first half of the year:

“When we got into Nigeria, trading volume was over $760 million last year, and Nigerian users have climbed over two million. And despite the global financial crisis, Paxful sees peer-to-peer and interest in bitcoin not waning. In in the first half of 2022, the trading volume in Nigeria reached almost 400 million dollars, which shows us that the emerging markets are still hungry for bitcoin.

The digital asset exchange – LocalBitcoins – also recorded a significant increase in interest in the primary cryptocurrency. Latest data showed an increase of 258% compared to last week’s figures.

Turks and Argentines turned to crypto as well

The economic condition of Turkey, especially the galloping inflation and its devaluing national currency, became a reason for many Turks to convert their money to Bitcoin and Tether. It was considered a surprise why local people showed so much interest in these digital assets since gold has been their favorite choice for years.

Not long ago, however, the government encouraged people to bring their precious metal “under the mattress” into the banking system and thus support the declining financial network.

Argentina is another country struggling with economic distress and political chaos. At the beginning of July, the Minister of Economy – Martin Guzman – resigned his position, which caused more panic among the local population.

Somewhat expected of the crisis, many Argentines shifted their focus to crypto. According to data from CryptoYa, Binance and Lemon Cash, the most purchased tokens became stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, including Tether.