Nigerians Diversify Traditional Assets into Cryptocurrencies To Counter Rising Fiat Inflation, Says Report
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Latest research reveals a staggering growth in crypto adoption across Nigeria, pivoted by limited access to affordable fiat-based financial services in Africa.
KuCoin’s “Into the Cryptoverse Report” highlights that many Nigerian citizens have started using cryptocurrencies as a viable alternative to store and transfer assets.
According to the crypto exchange report, 35% of the Nigerian population aged 18 to 60 — or 33.4 million people — have owned or traded cryptocurrencies during the last six months. Out of those people, nearly 17.36 million (or 52% of Nigerian crypto investors) have allocated over half of their assets to cryptocurrencies.
It was found put that one of the main reasons why Nigerians seek to diversify traditional assets into cryptocurrencies is to counter rising fiat inflation. For example, too many Nigerians now search about bitcoin investment per google search trend report. Considering the difficulty with investing in traditional financial products like stocks etc, investors find crypto safer and easier to access and invest in.
The KuCoin report further highlights peer-to-peer trading as the most popular method among Nigerian investors to convert fiat into crypto assets. Doubling down on the crypto adoption spree, roughly 23.38 million Nigerians, or 70% of existing crypto investors, will increase their cryptocurrency investments over the next six months.
The value of the naira, has fallen by over 209% in the past six years, which stands as one of the key drivers for local investors to eye deflationary assets such as Bitcoin (BTC).
Read Also: eNaira More Reliable Than Cryptocurrencies ; CBN. Asks Nigerians to Trade with the Digital Currency.
The report also shows that while a majority of Nigerian crypto investors began their hodling journey many years ago, 26% began investing in cryptocurrencies just six months back — owing to the 2021 bull run, which saw BTC prices briefly cross the $69,000 mark.
In October 2021, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari introduced the country’s central bank digital currency, the eNaira. Numerous governments across the globe intend to use CBDCs as a digitized fiat replacement, primarily aimed at reducing operational costs and speeding up cross-border payments.
The eNaira is considered the most developed CBDC, scoring 95 out of 100 across both the retail and wholesale categories in PwC’s recently released “2022 Global CBDC Index.”
But since after its launch, its adoption have recorded a drastic failure caused by too many glitches recorded when using the mobile app by Nigerians.
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