Bitcoin has lost $433.66bn (N177.80tn) in value from May 10, 2021 to July 12, 2021, according to data from coinmarketcap.com.

Bitcoin had a live market cap of $629.05bn (N257.91tn) and traded for $33,541.37 as of 3.32 pm Nigerian time on July 12, 2021, down from a live market cap of $1.06tn (N433.71tn) and traded for $56,810.92 on May 10, 2021.

This showed a loss of $433.66bn (N177.80tn) in the period under review.

Despite the ban on cryptocurrency by the Central Bank of Nigeria, trades by Nigeria in June were worth $34.73m (N14.24bn), according to data from usefultulips.org.

Although this is lower than trading volumes of $38.5m (N15.8bn) in May, it is higher than that of April, $33.1m (N13.6bn); March, $33.6m (N13.8bn); February, $31.9m (N13.1bn) and January $31.9m (N13.1bn).

Usefultulips aggregates trading volume from LocalBitcoins and Paxful trading platforms.

The global collapse in bitcoin prices began in May after Tesla’s Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, announced that his company was no longer accepting bitcoin as a means of payment because of its high carbon footprints.

The PUNCH had recently reported that JPMorgan Chase’s analysts expected bitcoin price to decline to the $25,000 level before longer momentum signals capitulation.

Although bitcoin and other cryptocurrency trading is banned in Nigeria after a circular released in early February 2021 by the CBN ordering a ban on cryptocurrency trading, the trading volumes from Nigeria continue to rise.

According to Paxful, one of the largest trading platforms in the country, trading volume from Nigeria has surged since the CBN’s ban.

The company, in an emailed response to enquiries from our correspondent, said trading volumes from Nigeria from July 2020 to June 2021 surged to $640m (N262.4bn).

Trading volumes from Nigeria was $550m (N225.5bn) from July 2019 to June 2020.

Koinwa, a Nigerian crypto platform, has said its growth metric is daily now because it sells bitcoin for as low as N500.

The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Disu Hakeem, in an interview with our correspondent, said, “It excites people to want to buy as they want to see how bitcoins works.


“People are coming to trade on Koinwa, as you know we don’t buy or sell. Individual are the ones that buy and sell on Koinwa. We are just an escrow-based peer-to-peer app.”

Hakeem also added that the platform was gearing to launch a bitcoin loan initiative targeted at the African market for market traders and students, among others.

He said, “The reason for the bitcoin loan is to create a social impact and assist small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa grow favorably with little or no interest rate. We are not collecting any collateral for this loan system but terms and conditions apply.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/punchng.com/bitcoin-loses-433-66bn-in-two-months-nigerians-trade-73-23m/%3famp?espv=1

See figures for this sapa season.
There’s no money on ground, everywhere.