Nigerians increasing their use of BTC is no longer news, but what seems astonishing is the volume that Nigerians transacted with BTCs in Q2 2020, compared to other African countries. Data shows that the use of Bitcoin for peer to peer lending in Nigeria is on an astronomical run.

Recent statistics obtained from usefultulips, a BTC analytic data provider, showed that Nigeria led the pack with more than $34.4 million, while the closest rival, South Africa, had a transactional value of just $15.2 million during the last 90 days.

READ ALSO: Covid-19: Guinness Nigeria warns investors its results will be bad

Among top countries in the last 90 days leading in peer to peer Bitcoin transactional trades on the African continent are:

Nigeria – $34.4 million dollars
South Africa – $15.2 million dollars
Kenya – $7.8 million
Ghana – $640,000
Tanzania – $600,000

Quick Facts: In BTC’s case, peer to peer is the exchange of BTC between parties (such as individuals) without the involvement of a central authority. This means that peer to peer use of BTC takes a decentralized approach in the exchange of Bitcoins between individuals and groups.

It shows that BTC’s long-running narrative as the “digital gold” for hedging against global economic turmoil is gaining the trust of Nigerians for payments and transfers.

Download the Nairametrics News App

The financial market turmoil triggered by COVID-19 has definitely changed the way Nigerians view the whole financial system, as data also obtained from Google trend shows Nigeria leading the pack around the world in Bitcoin searches. This is a testament to the fact that Nigerians truly love their Bitcoins.

Popular payment based crypto company, Ripple, which controls the fourth most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization, recently unlocked 1 billion XRP, worth about $177.6 million, from an escrow account.

Whale Alert monitored this movement, which occurred in two different 500 million XRP transactions, in real-time.

🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 🔓 500,000,000 #XRP (88,240,341 USD) unlocked from escrow at Ripple Escrow wallet

Tx: https://t.co/WxlOuLWS92

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 1, 2020

Ripple owns more than half of the total supply of XRP. In late 2017, the company vowed not to sell all of its tokens (XRP) at once, keeping up to 55 billion XRP in protected escrow accounts.

READ MORE: AfDB board denies asking Adesina to step down, as Obasanjo says the bank risks being hijacked

It then set up a plan to release about 1,000,000,000 XRP monthly for sale to be used as funding for its operations, and to invest in startups of interest, with the rest kept back in the escrow accounts.

Quick fact: Ripple (XRP) plays dual roles as a payment platform and a currency. The platform is an open-source platform that is created to allow quick and cheap transactions.

Unlike its crypto rival, Bitcoin, which was never intended to be a simple payment system, Ripple has gained the attention of major global banks, like Standard Chartered, and Barclays for international transactions worldwide.

Recall that a few months ago, the U.S Consumer Financial Protection Bureau looked excited about Ripple as a tool for bringing simplicity and openness to the financial industry.  It said:

“To the degree banks and credit unions increase their reliance on closed network payment systems for sending remittance transfers and other cross-border money transfers, the Bureau notes that this could result in greater standardization and ease by which sending institutions can know exact covered third-party fees and exchange rates.

Download the Nairametrics News App

“The Bureau also believes that expanded adoption of SWIFT’s GPI product or Ripple’s suite of products could similarly allow banks and credit unions to know the exact final amount that recipients of remittance transfers will receive before they are sent.”

Just recently, the world of crypto investors and traders was caught unaware, as Tether’s market capitalization surged close to the $10 billion market capitalization.

Tether, which was trading at $1 at the time this report was drafted, has a market capitalization of $9.8 billion, according to data obtained from Coinmarketcap. It is now bigger than XRP, whose market capitalization is roughly $7.8 billion.

Why it matters: Tether continues to grow its lead on its stablecoin competitors and is still the only stablecoin with a market capitalization greater than $1 billion.

READ MORE: Senate to review 2013 power privatisation, questions FG’s funding

The $10 billion mark is not fundamentally significant, but it is a sign of USDT’s staying power, despite all its controversy over the years.

Quick fact: Tether is designed as a blockchain-based cryptocurrency whose digital coins in circulation are backed by the same value of traditional fiat currencies like the U.S dollar, Japanese Yen, or the Euro. It trades under the ticker symbol USDT.

Barely weeks ago, Bloomberg reports stated that the momentum with the help of the U.S dollar was expected to make Tether gain and move to the second spot.

Download the Nairametrics News App

“Absent an unlikely reversal in predominant crypto trends, it should be a matter of time until Tether passes Ethereum to take the No. 2 spot in total assets behind Bitcoin. Receiving help from widespread adoption with a workable case as a proxy for the world’s reserve currency, there seems little to stop the increasing adoption of the dollar-linked stable coin,” the report stated.