$430 Million Worth of Bitcoin Traded Amidst CBN’s Restrictions

Paxful, one of the major peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency exchange platforms in the world with a strong presence in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, has said it has 1.5 million cryptocurrency traders/investors in Nigeria despite the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) restrictions.

According to the exchange platform, Nigerians have traded over $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency volume on the platform up until 2021. This, the company said Bitcoin accounted for $420 million, adding that the number jumped by 23% between February 2021 and March 2021. Just after the CBN restricted banks from facilitating cryptocurrency payments for traders and investors in Nigeria.

Last year February, the central bank of Nigeria made a statement saying “Further to earlier regulatory directives on the subject, the bank hereby wishes to remind regulated institutions that dealing in cryptocurrencies or facilitating payments for cryptocurrency exchange is prohibited.”

However, Paxful revealed that;

“Nigeria is leading in cryptocurrency, and we expect this growth to only continue. To share some stats:

• Nigeria is our largest market, with 1.5 million users and over $1.5 billion volume to date (since 2015) 
• Compared to last year – we are on pace to have 23% more bank transfer trades in Nigeria on the platform than last year
• Compared to last year – we are on pace to have 36% more bank transfer volume in Nigeria on the platform than last year
• Looking at YoY data from end of June 2020/2021, we see increases in Bitcoin trading volumes of 57% in Nigeria 
• Looking at YoY data from end of June 2020/2021, we see increases in user numbers of 83% in Nigeria 
• To date, in 2021, we’ve seen over $430M in USD traded in BTC alone in Nigeria 
• From Feb 2021 to March 2021 (after CBN restrictions were placed), trade volume increased over 23% on Paxful in Nigeria
• As of April 2021, Bitcoin P2P trading in Nigeria has surged by 27% since restrictions were introduced by CBN”

Asides from Paxful, there are other P2P platforms that focus on buying and selling bitcoins and other digital currencies in Nigeria.

Binance, Bybit, Kucoin, etc are some of the known cryptocurrency exchange platforms in Nigeria, one of the largest participating nations. However, there are no available figures to authenticate their transaction volume or value like Paxful.

Since the CBN restricted banks from dealing in cryptocurrencies, Nigerians now rely on P2P platforms like Paxful, Binance and others for their cryptocurrency transactions.