Nigerians are fasting adopting the world’s most popular crypto – Bitcoin, as their mainstream for payments and wealth preservation. Thus, setting the pace for other African countries – as it leads the whole African continent combined in the use of Bitcoin via transactions turnover.

Then, it becomes unsurprising to see leading crypto brands like Binance, Paxful, FTX, Crypto.com, printing their labels in Nigeria, as it is apparently one of the fastest-growing crypto markets in the ever-changing world.

According to a new study seen by Nairametrics, Nigeria has seen the largest influx of activity in peer to peer lending in the month of October.

What you should know

Data obtained from usefultulips, a BTC analytic data provider showed Nigeria leads Africa’s peer to peer lending in the month of October 2020, as it posted a monthly P2P volumes of between $32.5 million, followed by South Africa and Kenya posting about $9million and $7.4 million respectively.

What they are saying

Ekene Ojieh, Head Of Public Relations, Buffalo Chase, a fast-growing crypto analytic firm, attributed the upward trend in the adoption of cryptos – most especially Bitcoin, to Nigeria’s demographic structure.

“Nigeria ranks 8th position in the largest country with crypto adoption. The reasons for this fact are not far-fetched.

“The Nigerian youth has about 32% of the entire population of about 200 million people.

“It’s easy for a young country like Nigeria to adopt the use of bitcoin because a large percentage of its population falls within the age range that is tech-savvy. Although, that’s not the only reason why many Nigerian youths adopt bitcoin.

“Nigerian youths prefer to secure their assets in bitcoin or stablecoins because naira like every other fiat currency is susceptible to inflation.

“The borderless feature of bitcoin makes payment effortless and transaction fee outrageously low.

“In the recent protest in Nigeria, we saw the sharp switch to bitcoin after the movement’s bank account was frozen making up to about 44% of the entire donation.

“Bitcoin gained an impressive 13.7% over week 43 – as per Glassnode. Bitcoin is currently traded at a $13,000 region. With the accessibility of bitcoin, we see more Nigerian youths adopting the use of bitcoin.”

It’s also critical to note that a significant number of Nigerian youths, amid #EndSARS protest that had triggered police reforms, got help from Bitcoin, on the principle that its payments were secured and had no central authority, which could breach payment. The funds were consequently used in aiding and providing medical and legal bills for some youths who had peacefully set out for such cause and got arrested in that period.

This is one thing that surely stood out in the just concluded #EndSARS protest and got the rare limelight in the crypto-verse. A Nigerian female rights group better known as the Feminist Coalition, a non-governmental organization originally created to push for gender equality in Nigeria, used the power of crypto technology in disbursing funds for injured protesters, food, water, first aid supplies – that the co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey had to lend his support.

Dorsey tweeted, “Donate via Bitcoin to help #EndSARS,” while also retweeting a tweet by the Feminist Coalition informing Nigerians of how to support the fast-changing female right group.

Donate via #Bitcoin to help #EndSARS 🇳🇬 https://t.co/kf305SFXze

— jack (@jack) October 14, 2020

Bottom line

Nigerian millennials are fast adapting to the most ever-changing financial asset in the modern era and leading brands are also taking advantage of such prevailing macro.

The odds are now playing strongly in favor of the world’s most popular crypto – Bitcoin.

Data retrieved from a well-known crypto custodian firm Blockchain showed how Bitcoin from $0.06 in September 2010 exploded to its current price of around $13,000 – representing a surge of over 26,600,000% in a span of 10 years.

READ: Pigs on a rampage as Bitcoin prices drop over 10%

READ: Bulls on rampage, Ethereum wallets now record high

Meanwhile, the same couldn’t be said about its closest performing rivals, which included the Yellow metal and the S&P 500, which climbed 103% and 233% respectively over the same stretch.

Why this matters

The flagship crypto seems to run hot on many prevailing macros, not forgetting that the general economic law states that when demand is high and supply is limited, prices of such products will usually go up.

READ: Chainlink breaks into top 10 most valuable cryptocurrency in the world

• Bitcoin has established a robust support level at $13,000,
• It should also be noted in the past few years, that Bitcoin holders are refusing to sell and instead use it for wealth preservation.
• Also, another strong sign giving crypto traders bullish bias include Bitcoin’s  Active Supply 3y-5y (1d MA) just reaching a 23-month high of 1,840,755.050 BTC, as seen from Glassnode – a popular analytic firm

A previous 23-month high of 1,840,745.362 BTC was observed earlier today.

READ: Apple claims GEEP Canada stole over 100,000 of its devices

READ: Fate of $2.3 billion worth of Bitcoins in Limbo

What this means

Nairametrics earlier broke the news on how the world’s flagship crypto continues to gain traction at the speed of light. The renowned financial data media company, Bloomberg Intelligence, gave critical insights on why bitcoin, in just about five years’ time, could hit a valuation of $100,000.

READ: There are now 13,173 BTC millionaires around the world

READ: China’s economy bounces back from COVID-19 slump, with a growth of 4.9% in Q3 2020

“Bitcoin’s foundation is firming for further price advances if its history is a guide. Since initially reaching $10,000 in 2017, the benchmark crypto corrected about 70% and remains in an extended period of consolidation around that level,” the report said.

America’s biggest bank, JP Morgan Chase, recently released a rare statement on the world’s flagship crypto, where it said that Bitcoin has what it takes to challenge gold’s status as the go-to alternative financial asset.

When compared to other financial assets like gold and crude oil, Bitcoin looks relatively small, considering that it has a market capitalization of $242 billion, compared to the precious metal’s (Gold) $2.6 trillion market value. However, this means the crypto has more room for upside and can potentially compete with gold as the preferred alternative currency.

READ: JP Morgan responds to FG’s Malabu court case

In a report credited to Business Insider, America’s most valuable bank, JPMorgan Chase, gave valuable insights on why it believes the odds are with Bitcoin to keep rising in value.

“Even a modest crowding out of gold as an ‘alternative’ currency over the longer term would imply doubling or tripling of the bitcoin price,” JPMorgan Chase said.

READ: Large entity moves Bitcoins valued $244 million

And over time, Bitcoin could be held for other reasons such as for making payments, not just for being a store of wealth as gold is, according to JPMorgan Chase.

“Cryptocurrencies derive value not only because they serve as stores of wealth but also due to their utility as a means of payment. The more economic agents accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment in the future, the higher their utility and value,” JPMorgan Chase explained.

READ: Gold prices settle lower, amid President Trump’s COVID-19 infection

What you should know

It’s important to note that such a bullish call by an American elite bank is coming on macros that BTC has a circulating supply of 19 million coins and a max supply of 21 million coins, meaning there are about 2 million left to be mined.

READ: JPM coin: What it is and what it means for Cryptocurrency

• Taking into account that about 4 million Bitcoins have been lost forever as a result of BTCs’ owners dying, and their next of kin not having access to such cryptos, it is fair to say there are only about 15 million BTC presently in circulation to cater for over 7 billion people fighting to have a stake in Bitcoins. This means that as BTC becomes scarce and more popular, it is only a matter of time before crypto asset valuation will hit the roof.
• As the general economic law states, when demand is high and supply is limited, prices of such products usually go up.
• Another strong fundamental increasing the odds on the world’s most popular crypto is that it’s almost impossible to forge, and has strong durability characteristics.
• Thanks to its complexly designed decentralized blockchain network, it will take you more than a supercomputer to make such an attempt. Also, you have to confuse all players in the blockchain network, in accepting such forged digital coin.