Nigeria’s crypto transaction volume grew year-over-year to $56.7bn, Chainalysis has disclosed.
This was a nine per cent y-o-y growth recorded between July 2022 – June 2023, the firm noted. It stated that the country’s crypto economy continues to grow despite market turmoil in the space.
The blockchain research firm said, “In fact, Nigeria is one of only six countries in the top 50 by size globally whose crypto transaction volume grew year-over-year in the time period we studied. Its growth rate of 9.0 per cent places it third among those six.”
According to the firm, citizens of the country are adopting crypto to preserve the value of their savings against rising inflation and debt.
It continued, “The evidence suggests crypto is one solution to Nigeria’s economic challenges. Since 2016, Nigeria has suffered from two major recessions, fueled by an unstable political situation, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the collapse of oil prices. Consequently, Nigerians of all ages are facing high unemployment — more than 20 million people were looking for jobs in 2021 — and many are up and moving to other countries.”
Interest in Bitcoin and stablecoins has generally risen as the Naira’s value has decreased, Chainalysis opined. The firm noted that while Sub-Saharan Africa had the smallest crypto market, Nigeria ranks as the second-highest country in the world in terms of crypto adoption.
It added, “Although Sub-Saharan Africa has consistently been one of the smallest cryptocurrency markets, a closer analysis reveals that crypto has penetrated key markets and become an important part of many residents’ day-to-day lives. As we’ll explore in more detail later, no country exemplifies this better than Nigeria, which ranks second overall on our Global Crypto Adoption Index and also leads the region in raw transaction volume.” (Punch)
