Yesterday Bitcoin’s (BTC) price skyrocketed in NIgeria, well outperforming global market levels. In exact terms, the price of 1 BTC on the exchange platform NairaEX jumped to an amazing $38,792, roughly $15,000 more than the normal price: that is a whopping 60% premium over the current market price of the cryptocurrency. The price of Bitcoin premium has already surged in Nigeria in early 2021, meaning this is not the first instance of such a climb occurring.
But why is this happening now in Nigeria? The answer is likely to be found in a recent measure that the country’s central bank imposed, which restricted ATM cash withdrawals, apparently in a bid to accelerate Nigeria’s evolution into a cashless system that was announced in December 2022. In addition, the Central Bank is also launching a domestic card scheme, both in order to accelerate the adoption of a cashless economy, but also to start rivaling foreign payment giants like Visa.
