The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators have continually warned against the acquisition of cryptocurrencies by Nigerians over their alleged risky nature. For those who did not heed those warnings, many are swimming in millions of Naira if not dollars now, considering the gradual acceptability of cryptocurrencies in international trade and the much faster appreciation of cryptocurrency value.
While those who sat on the sidelines and heeded the regulators’ warnings may look on with a little (or not so little) bit of envy now, you can at least catch a little drama knowing the various phases of emotions cryptocurrency owners and traders must get used to. Here are the top 4
Anticipation
For every owner of cryptocurrencies, the first few waking moments of the day are day-, if not life-defining. The look when they access the Internet to know what happened during the few hours they slept shows all their anticipation of good news and fear of bad news wrapped up into one. These few minutes it takes to know the current value of what they have can be really nerve-wracking. Many may not acknowledge happenings in their surroundings during this time.
Joy
That feeling when a cryptocurrency owner wakes up to news that his currency has soared more than 500% while he was catching a nice night’s sleep! This emotion is also the most often-showed emotion by owners who want the world to know how wrong the regulators’ are and how right they were instead. Traders are enthusiastically explaining to everyone who cares to listen how they knew all along that they could never get it wrong and played all the smart moves. They also start forecasting more glad tidings into the value of the cryptocurrency making anyone who’s not trading feel envious. Fortunately or unfortunately, there’s been a lot of this emotion lately among cryptocurrency owners.
Shock
Coming in as another very commonly shown emotion is shock- and there are no prizes for guessing why. Of course, waking up to hear that your N10 million yesterday is now N500, 000 this morning because the currency was hacked or because you were careless with your coins can really raise blood pressure levels. Of course, while many do not want others to know they have lost so much, their alarmed looks, zombie-like movement, and loud cries often tell the story to non-traders.
Annoyance
Ever seen a trader complain about the many fees attached to a so-called free currency? That’s annoyance. You want to buy, there’s a fee. You want to sell, there’s a fee. You want to exchange coins for raw cash, there’s yet another fee. That irritated look on the faces of traders when they are faced with these bills echoes the question on their minds “What exactly is free about this currency sef?”
