Nigeria is now the No.2 bitcoin market

[Upgrade00]

For such a long time the Nigerian government had been on the fence about bitcoin, they urged users not to use it but there was no legal standings or definition for its usage. Despite the government's warnings of the risks around it, Nigerians still traded heavily in Bitcoin over the years.
Some months ago, the government finally declared Bitcoin and other digital assets to be legal, although regulations were put in place to qualify them as securities based on certain criteria - https://lightblocksnews.com/crypotocurrencies-now-legal-in-nigeria-after-sec-landmark-ruling/
This move could have been motivated by the massive usage of the asset by Nigerians as reflected in the fact that the country is the 2nd largest Bitcoin market in the world on Paxful;

In the last five years, Nigeria has traded 60,215 bitcoins, valued at more than $566 million which, apart from the US, is the largest volume worldwide on Paxful, a leading peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace. The data scraped from Coin Dance  shows from the beginning of May 2015 to the middle of November this year, bitcoin trade in Nigeria have increased yearly at least 19% in volume since 2017, and the highest volume (20,504.50) was traded in 2020.

The pandemic situation which created global uncertainty regarding currency exchange and economic policies also lead to growth in trades involving Bitcoin in Nigeria, with a spike of about 30%;

Bitcoin trade had its highest spike of 30% this year during the national lockdown in the country and the highest volume traded during the peak of the pandemic. Between January and September, Paxful reported a 137% increase in new registrations in Nigeria.

Nigerians are also using Bitcoin the right way, through decentralized and peer-to-peer platforms:

Peer-to-peer (P2P) exchanges, which are decentralized platforms that directly connects buyers and sellers without third parties are the most popular way to buy bitcoin in Africa because users do not have to worry about cryptocurrency regulation by the government. Paxful is the largest platform for P2P trade in Africa and overtook LocalBitcoins in June this year to be the Largest P2P bitcoin marketplace in the world, controlling 52% of the market share.

Source
Top ten countries:

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[NeuroticFish]

Interesting numbers. I didn't follow the trends/numbers, hence I am surprised. I was expecting China and Russia, maybe Australia too higher ranked than Nigeria.
Also interesting to see that Germany and Russia aren't even in top10.

Hats of for the Nigerians! They seem to know what they're doing.

[Obi theo]

 If truly the stats are legit , it means the really makes use of bitcoin withe extreme purpose and the government really back them up by legalizing it .
Thumps up Nigeria. Thumps up

[tranthidung]

It can be true if you say about P2P marketplaces but can be inaccurate if you are saying about bitcoin market (not restrict to P2P marketplaces).

The screenshot is from the article and figures are for last 5 days volume.

There are stats for monthly volume (from a third party provider so the accuracy is unknown). Lots of things change in the last 5 days but the statistics for October (USD equivalent) shows same ranks for top 3 nations: USA, Nigeria, and China with volume in October are $81.13 million, $16.61 million and $14.45 million of dollar, respectively.

You can check it out there: usefultulips.org. My given charts are in monthy. The default window is weekly so you have to customize it. You can get stats for combined volume from Paxful and LocalBicoins or each of these.

[dothebeats]

Kinda skeptical on the numbers posted in here. There are tons of other countries and markets wherein volume is insanely high given the affinity of the population to invest on these new assets. While I believe Nigeria is leading Africa’s charge on cryptocurrency revolution, We’re still far from seeing them actually outrank SoKor, China, and other EU countries. Good start nonetheless, though.

[Karartma1]

It would be good to compare those data with those from centralized exchanges: that would give a clearer picture about this whole situation.
Anyway, not so long before some wealthy nigerian bitcoiner will ask to buy the whole country if bitcoin keeps pushing the throttle. 

[msarro]

It would be good to compare those data with those from centralized exchanges: that would give a clearer picture about this whole situation.
Anyway, not so long before some wealthy nigerian bitcoiner will ask to buy the whole country if bitcoin keeps pushing the throttle. 

I didn't know that there's a lot of people who uses bitcoin on exchange comes from Nigeria I really though it would be something like China I didn't even know that they were on the list as well as the Vietnam and the Philippines. I was wondering what will be the result if they include the decentralized exchanges?

[Akiko]

It would be good to compare those data with those from centralized exchanges: that would give a clearer picture about this whole situation.
Anyway, not so long before some wealthy nigerian bitcoiner will ask to buy the whole country if bitcoin keeps pushing the throttle. 

I didn't know that there's a lot of people who uses bitcoin on exchange comes from Nigeria I really though it would be something like China I didn't even know that they were on the list as well as the Vietnam and the Philippines. I was wondering what will be the result if they include the decentralized exchanges?

Nigerian has a lot of crypto investors they support not only Bitcoin but they also invest in different altcoin. I noticed it in early 2017 there are many Nigerian actively participating in social media just because they want to invest in crypto currency .

What do you mean by they include decentralized exchange In tracking? It's hard to track it using decentralized exchange .

[hannahB4]

This is true as a citizen of this countries you can see within a street notify you to trade bitcoin, I was even surprised when some of the people we called Paga here are into Bitcoin even on WhatsApp status friends creating awareness Many people are really aware about bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a whole

[bittreo]

This is true as a citizen of this countries you can see within a street notify you to trade bitcoin, I was even surprised when some of the people we called Paga here are into Bitcoin even on WhatsApp status friends creating awareness Many people are really aware about bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a whole

This is really good thing coming from especially Nigeria. I didn't expect to be numbered at 2. I expected Germany or Russia to be there in the list but they are out of sight.

[electronicash]

its good that their government isn't banning btc. Brainboss must have contributed a lot in the market.

this is P2P and not entirely on the volume of trading on cex. its very surprising that china is only in the 3rd place because to me these are the kind of people who will risk not eating for a week just so they have get more money the next day. Korean market is even massive.

[ChrisPop]

I'm quite surprised to be sincere. I knew that Nigerians are very fond of cryptocurrencies but I didn't know their purchasing power is so big. Anybody knows if the same statistic is present on localbitcoins or other p2p platforms?

Maybe people in more developed like to deal with registered businesses when purchasing assets.

[Harlot]

If they can reach #2 without the government's support can you imagine how much help they will be giving it to them. By way of law and through attracting foreign investments which will help them exponentially just by showing that the government is supporting a certain industry it simply boost everyone's confidence about using it more and more since they know that it is legal and they have the assurance that noting will happen to their assets.

[BIN-BIN]

How legit is this site that place Nigeria as the second cryptocurrency friendly country in terms of volume, I believe there are so many inaccurate statistics calculation to put other big crypto plays at the bottom of the ranking chart.

Any ways it a good news to see third world countries picking interest in latest development as regards fin tech.

[cr1776]

A few things to note:
**  2nd largest ON Paxful. NOT overall
** " using Bitcoin the right way, through decentralized and peer-to-peer platforms" - that's the thing about a decentralized, permissionless currency, there is no "right way" or wrong way.  Anyone can use it however they wish.  I do agree that for many things peer-to-peer is desirable, but "right vs wrong"?  I don't think so.

Everything else considered, ANY use is good news and the more people using it the better, but the headline is a bit misleading.

[AB de Royse777]

A few things to note:
**  2nd largest ON Paxful. NOT overall
** " using Bitcoin the right way, through decentralized and peer-to-peer platforms" - that's the thing about a decentralized, permissionless currency, there is no "right way" or wrong way.  Anyone can use it however they wish.  I do agree that for many things peer-to-peer is desirable, but "right vs wrong"?  I don't think so.

Everything else consider, ANY use is good news and the more people using it the better, but the headline is a bit misleading.

Point noted, I was confused for a few minutes.

Country like Nigeria, Somalia where deflation is at the top, the banknotes has zero value (even a white piece of paper has more value than the banknotes) - they need a currency system that can not be manipulated by any government. In fact, we really need to think about how this fiat system is so funny and start moving to crypto as early as we can. At least have some holding in crypto and crypto means bitcoin here of course.

[Wysi]

It's bit shocking as well as surprising to see Nigeria being second on the list. Nigerians have always shown interest into Bitcoin and had been participating in all the Bitcoin related events. I have few Nigerian friends who don't miss any chance on spreading words about Bitcoin by sharing awareness. Moreover, this is a good tight slap on face of people who view entire Nigerians with a doubt for wrong doing of few.

This news has elated me and wish more success to the developing nation.

[nelson4lov]

Kinda skeptical on the numbers posted in here. There are tons of other countries and markets wherein volume is insanely high given the affinity of the population to invest on these new assets. While I believe Nigeria is leading Africa’s charge on cryptocurrency revolution, We’re still far from seeing them actually outrank SoKor, China, and other EU countries. Good start nonetheless, though.

Nigeria is actually 2nd placing in terms of volume for Bitcoin markets but that's based on P2P trades. Nigeria has always been up in the list next to US in terms of trading volume for P2P trades for years now thanks to marketplaces such as Localbitcoins, Paxful and others. Binance boosted those numbers with the integration of NGN fiat base services including deposits and withdrawals, NGN trading pairs along with other incentives. This move alone was welcome by a lot of Nigerian traders. 

[Upgrade00]

**  2nd largest ON Paxful. NOT overall

If you read the full write up you'll see I indicated that this numbers were gotten on Paxful.

** " using Bitcoin the right way, through decentralized and peer-to-peer platforms" - that's the thing about a decentralized, permissionless currency, there is no "right way" or wrong way.  Anyone can use it however they wish.  I do agree that for many things peer-to-peer is desirable, but "right vs wrong"?  I don't think so.

As you said, it's a decentralized, peer to peer network, and was designed to remove the need to trust a third party, considering these should it be used though a centralized platform which requires trust and actually takes away the quality of it being permissionless, as well as your pseudo anonymity?
Rightly, Bitcoin can be anything to everyone, but the more people choose to use it through government regulated exchanges the more we give them the power to regulate and control it.

Country like Nigeria, Somalia where deflation is at the top, the banknotes has zero value (even a white piece of paper has more value than the banknotes)

You may need to do more research about African nations. Nigeria and Somalia cannot be put in the same sentence. Nigeria is one of the largest developing nations in the world and currently the largest economy in Africa (both Nigeria and South Africa have been interchanging the top spot for many years). With an annual GDP of about $450 billion in 2019, Nigeria's GDP was higher than all except 11 European nations.
About the currency, the Naira certainly doesn't have zero value and with recent policies being suggested by the CBN, it would become less influenced by external factors, reducing the spread between the bank exchange rate and that of the black market.

[AB de Royse777]

Country like Nigeria, Somalia where deflation is at the top, the banknotes has zero value (even a white piece of paper has more value than the banknotes)

You may need to do more research about African nations. Nigeria and Somalia cannot be put in the same sentence. Nigeria is one of the largest developing nations in the world and currently the largest economy in Africa (both Nigeria and South Africa have been interchanging the top spot for many years). With an annual GDP of about $450 billion in 2019, Nigeria's GDP was higher than all except 11 European nations.
About the currency, the Naira certainly doesn't have zero value and with recent policies being suggested by the CBN, it would become less influenced by external factors, reducing the spread between the bank exchange rate and that of the black market.

Apology, I did not have this data in mind about Nigeria and South Africa. I meant African countries like Somalia where literally the note means nothing (just to remind you that my knowledge are limited again).

However, isn't Bitcoin is something that is useful for any country specially countries where government are corrupted, never think for the citizens but their own.