Many crypto traders in Nigeria are adopting new strategies to their already existing platforms as means to keep up with the bear market and generate more revenue.
Since July 2022, the crypto market crashed with the price of Bitcoin (BTC) falling below $24,000, a 65 percent decline from its all-time high of $69,000 in November 2021. This crash which caused over 180,000 BTC traders to lose approximately $520 million has since then limited the level of business operations in the space.
More than $200 billion was wiped off the entire cryptocurrency market and the market capitalization fell below $1 trillion for the first time since February 2021, CoinmarketCap reported within the period.
While the effect of this market crash mirrors deeply on Nigerians because of the country’s major interest and position in the global crypto market, many have adopted some measures to keep going, with some opening additional businesses and building on their already existing platforms.
Crypto experts who spoke to BusinessDay said that some other strategic measures have been put in place to stay on track and generate revenue as they struggle through the global crises.
Gozie Onyema, a cryptocurrency trader who lost over N2 million during the crash said most of the traders have gone into crypto mentorship programmes while some now rely on decentralized apps and crypto jobs to make money.
“Many traders who know what the general market is all about have gone into mentorship programmes while most of them switch to crypto jobs. Crypto mentorship programmes are one of the major occupants of crypto trends at the moment where you see traders hosting almost a full capacity hall for learners or online which are all paid programmes,” Onyema said.
“Many traders I know now have mentorship handles on their social media platforms and are making it big from there with some having over 500 students paying to learn. They convince them to tap the bear season opportunity to learn crypto so when bull runs reach, they will start making money. There are also crypto jobs like moderating jobs, community management, chilling and others. These are alternative sources crypto traders are using to keep up.”
Nnoka Meekness, CEO, CryptoforPidgin explained that most of the crypt traders have switched to crypto staking and grinding on some web3 jobs like moderators, and community managers.
Read also: Why forex trading is not a get rich quick scheme
“Staking means you are not actually trading. You are just committing some amount of the coin you have or holding to a smart contract. After committing it, you will be getting some percentage without doing anything. The percentage called Annual percentage yield (APY) you earn depends on the staking pool and the cryptocurrency.
According to the CEO, some crypto traders are also switching to providing liquidity apart from staking. “Providing liquidity is like dropping your coins into a pool – smart contract, where people swap cryptocurrencies. The crypto you dropped will be used for the swapping and some percentage of the fees charged after any swapping will be given to you.”
Nigeria has been identified as one of the most cryptocurrency-obsessed nations globally despite the regulatory hurdles surrounding the space in the country.
Finder’s report on cryptocurrency ownership and adoption in 2022 shows that Nigeria has the second-highest number of Bitcoin owners globally as of October at 48 percent, up from 16.1 percent in the same month last year in 2021.
In August 2022, Nigeria emerged as the most crypto-obsessed nation in the world based on the increasing number of Nigerians searching the Internet for crypto-related trading, according to CoinGecko, a crypto price tracker.
Meanwhile, many top crypto firms with more focus on buying and selling coins, despite not being much affected by the crash, have also added a new niche to their already existing business to make more revenue.
B-lord Group, a crypto firm founded by Linus Williams, recently launched Billpoint payment App. He is known mostly for crypto marketing and transactions but has recently added payment apps to his wide range of services with a central focus on payment apps since it was launched.
Billpoint App by Blord offers equivalent services like Opay where customers can recharge, buy data, book flights and pay for other services. The App gained massive traction immediately after it was launched, topping number one on Nigeria’s finance App.
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