Nigerians interest in bitcoin has seen the country ranking tops on the list of countries with most search results about the cryptocurrency in the past twelve months.
Nigeria leads a top five countries list that includes Austria, South Africa, Ghana, and Switzerland. Much of the interest in Nigeria come from states in the south-south and southwest including Delta, Ekiti, Osun, Ondo, and Ebonyi.
Earlier in August, Blockchain.com reported that Nigeria was among the top four countries with the biggest increase in cryptocurrency wallet creation. The total number of unique Blockchain wallets created is more than 52 million. Nigeria alone accounted for a 52 percent increase since April to make it the most trending country.
The data aligns with Google search data which points to Nigeria as the country with the most relative interest in bitcoin.
Nigeria is also reportedly leading sub-Saharan Africa in peer-to-peer bitcoin trading. BusinessDay also reported that exchanges in the country have seen a spike in bitcoin demand as a result of the continued exchange crisis.
Buchi Okoro, CEO of Quidax told BusinessDay that the foreign exchange crisis has made business owners realise that finding a solution could be the difference between their employees receiving an alert at the end of the month or their business shutting down.
“We have seen a growing number of businesses realise that cryptocurrencies could make a difference for them. As these businesses are using crypto as a way to hedge against currency risks as well as to make payments to their suppliers and business partners abroad,” Okoro said. “Of course, it also helps that businesses can reduce transaction fees and cut transaction time from 3 days to less than a day.”
