What is the situation of Cryptocurrency in Nigeria?

[Baban twince]

Cryptocurrency in Nigeria has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. The Central Bank of Nigeria initially prohibited banks from dealing with cryptocurrencies in early 2021, but later allowed some fintech companies to offer cryptocurrency services. However, in recent years, the Nigerian government has been warming up to cryptocurrencies and even introduced a new digital currency called e-Naira. All this to say that the situation is constantly evolving.

Nigerians are among the world’s top adopters of cryptocurrencies, often using them to transfer money, hedge against inflation, and as an alternative to the Naira.
However, there have been instances of fraud and scams involving cryptocurrencies in Nigeria, so caution is recommended.

The Nigerian government has expressed interest in regulating cryptocurrencies, but it's unclear what form that regulation will take.
Despite the uncertainty, Nigerians continue to show interest in cryptocurrencies, with peer-to-peer trading and investment growing in popularity.

[Mate2237]

The situation on ground is not yet settled, Buhari banned cryptocurrency related transactions in the early 2021 (March) and unbanned it late(2023) when Tinubu government came in and at first things were going smoothly but at the first quarter of the year 2024 things became ban. And the federal government started witch hunting the Centralized Exchanges to be ban if they are not obey the country economic laws. And many were banned and Fintech banks were instructed to stop transaction with cryptocurrency. And I am suspecting that commercial banks are also parr of that move to stopped Fintech banks to stop cryptocurrency transaction because nobody uses commercial banks to do transaction because if their network delay pay and others.

According to OBJ the former president of Nigeria, said Tinubu has good economic policies but the problem is the implementation and that is the truth. If the implementation of these policies were good all these nonsense would happen. The solution to these problem in Nigeria is good implementation of the policies and not the eye service Ministers.  Now they are fighting to reduce dollar and make naira to appreciate but dollar is increasing everytime. And that means they have not done the wrong thing instead doing the wrong thing.

[Marvelockg]

the Nigerian government has been warming up to cryptocurrencies and even introduced a new digital currency called e-Naira. All this to say that the situation is constantly evolving.

the introduction of the e- naira which is same as CBDC is nothing too serious other than trying to model some of the Financial framework other nations are tilting towards and seeing if it's going to work in the Nigerian situation. It's obvious that from when the whole e-naira thing came on board, it didn't appear as though they wanted it to work and so when it wasn't gaining it deserved attention from the public, there was no strategy in place that was going to ensure that it actually worked and that's just why it appears as though the e-naira just came and went under bed within a short space of time.

Nigerians are among the world’s top adopters of cryptocurrencies, often using them to transfer money, hedge against inflation, and as an alternative to the Naira.
However, there have been instances of fraud and scams involving cryptocurrencies in Nigeria, so caution is recommended.

fraude isn't just peculiar to crypto. banks have actively involved themselves in the highest level of fraude even before crypto gained popularity in Nigeria and even now that crypto is operating side by side with banks, it hasn't changed the narrative at all and the rate of fraude is still increasing by the day.

Understand that when it comes to the level of fraude that's happening in the crypto space, it's just individual that carry out these act but as it regards fraudulent activities in our banking sectors, you have so many persons to be worried about. The banks themselves are a treat, the bankers are another treat and even the government regulations are the bigger threat. There isn't any serious safety in banks compaired to crypto. They are both in the financial sector and one of the common risk that's known of in that sector is fraude. As much as it's good to be cautious while engaging in crypto transactions and holding unto your assets, it's also very necessary to do same while trading with banks.

The Nigerian government has expressed interest in regulating cryptocurrencies, but it's unclear what form that regulation will take.
Despite the uncertainty, Nigerians continue to show interest in cryptocurrencies, with peer-to-peer trading and investment growing in popularity.

as much as I know, crypto has come to stay globally and regardless of the negative interest the government has been showing in this sector, it's just going to last for a period of time after which everything will go normal. They've tried and I know that by now it should be clear to them that the problem we're facing with the devaluation of our naira is not much of a crypto related issue.

[Kelward]

Nigerian government just like other governments want to de know and control cryptocurrency transactions, unto say crypto like Bitcoin, de decentralized, meaning say criminals dem fit to de launder money through am. Dat na why countries get different restrictions, unfavorable regulations while some countries na outright ban.

Di situation of cryptocurrency inside Nigeria, na peculiar case because our government de take crypto matter de cover for dem incompetent leadership. Dem de find ways to strengthen di naira, instead to face di matter from di root and improve our infrastructures, make di country not to depend on importation, instead na crypto matter dem come face, like say na im be di problem of Nigeria. After dem sanction Binance, and come disable naira p2p for reputable exchanges, how e don take help di naira to appreciate? Cost of goods and services for di country just de increase everyday and di poor de get poorer. No matter wetin dem do, cryptocurrency, don come to stay for naija, so e de better say make dem make Nigeria, a crypto friendly country, to benefit a lot of our citizens dem wey de earn money from cryptocurrency.

[Gozie51]

The Nigerian government has expressed interest in regulating cryptocurrencies, but it's unclear what form that regulation will take.

Me I don't know what means dem go use but obviously dem no go fit bypass crypto exchanges. So wetin dem go do na to officially register them as company through CAC and then them go dey begin operate as company, dem go get offices or branches here and then pay tax. This means every customer data wey dem do as KYC go dey submitted to government and na so government go fit take dey monitor wetin dey happen there.

Despite the uncertainty, Nigerians continue to show interest in cryptocurrencies, with peer-to-peer trading and investment growing in popularity.

We are strong people and not discouraged even in hard times but to move ahead and see opportunities even inside that difficult times. Nigerian government to block access to online services and crypto investment and with P2P wey dem block, dem think say youths go hands off but nothing like that because traders are still finding ways to do their arbitrage and collect their difference.

However, the Nigerian government still never get am right as dem dey chase crypto matter as if Naira dey fall because of P2P but dem forget say Nigeria still base on importation and dem need to also buy dollar to be able to bring in foreign products. So make dem strengthen the economy and the infrastructures.

[AVE5]

The Central Bank of Nigeria initially prohibited banks from dealing with cryptocurrencies in early 2021, but later allowed some fintech companies to offer cryptocurrency services.

As I can remember, the federal government then only prohibited the commerical banks not to facilitate on crypto currency transactions such as the banks also serving as traders and vendors. The Fintech companies were only authorized to facilitate investors crypto trading such as exchange of assets to naira.
Sounds like you're not updated Op because expectedly, you should have also talked about the recent prohibition of the Fintech companies not to associate with the cryptocurrencies furthermore.

However, there have been instances of fraud and scams involving cryptocurrencies in Nigeria, so caution is recommended.

The federal government has never accounted any form of persons who had involved in fraud using the cryptocurrencies as a route. Our government is only acting anti because they knows how well the masses are achieving through the crypto markets.