Bitcoin Nears Gold Price As Nigerians Snub CBN Cryptocurrency Ban
- Bitcoin price closes in on $55,000
- Bitcoin challenging Gold for most valuable asset
- Nigerians continue to trade Bitcoin despite CBN ban
Bitcoin is aiming for Gold's seat as the most valuable store of value asset following a surge in price that has propelled Bitcoin's worth closer to the price of a kilogram of Gold.
Cryptocurrency market price update reported that bitcoin investors now trade Bitcoin at $54,260.46, according to Coindesk. This is just few dollars away from the $54,763.97 Gold kilogram is worth on goldprice.
Prior to its recent surge, Bitcoin had traded above $58,000 on February 21, 2021, but the price bubble depleted by 17% the next day, declining below $50,000 on Monday, February 22, as holders lost over $10,000 off the bitcoin market. But since March 1, Bitcoin price has rebounded.
In the last 24hours, the price of the most popular cryptocurrency had gone for $54,452.72 per Bitcoin before settling at $54,260.46 as at the time of this report. Both Bitcoin and Gold have been the topic of discussion among investors community since Bitcoin broke the $20,000 mark in December 2020.
Since the creation of Bitcoin by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, Bitcoin had surpassed Gold kilogram price twice, first in March 2017 and then in February this year. While Bitcoin had falling behind everytime it surpasses Gold, it shadow remains visible.
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Both Bitcoin and Gold are currently two of the most desired asset class among investors, but only Gold has the full backing of the Nigerian government, and in most part of the world.
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Nigerians snub CBN to trade $25 million worth of Bitcoin in February
Bitcoin transactions is currently banned in Nigeria, as no bank is allowed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to house a Bitcoin account. Every Bitcoin account in deposit money banks and other financial institutions have been directed to be shutdown.
However, despite the ban on Bitcoin transactions, more Nigerians are requesting or using Bitcoin than Gold, with DocumentingBTC, a bitcoin tracker, stating that since the ban on cryptocurrency exchanges in Nigeria,15% more bitcoin trades have occured through peer-to-peer last month.
DocumentingBTC also stated that after the government banned banks from allowing cryptocurrency transactions, about $25 million worth of Bitcoin was traded by Nigerians. peer-to-peer has been the most used channel for the trading.
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Bitcoin is currently the most talked about asset in Nigeria due to its ability to grow wealth quickly and accommodate both low, middle and upper class Nigerians, unlike Gold which is more concentrated among wealthy Nigerians.
As of December last year, Nigeria was the second largest market for Bitcoin behind United States. While the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, had condemned the use of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as criminal currency, prominent Nigerians have backed the digital asset.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Bismarck Rewane, one of President Muhammadu Buhari's economic advisor, Kingsley Moghalu, former deputy governor at the CBN told the apex body to regulate instead of banning the cryptocurrency transactions in Nigeria.
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Fakoyejo Olalekan is a Business and Financial Journalist with over three years of experience in covering finance and business activities within Nigeria and offshore. Prior to joining Legit.ng, he worked at Nairametrics where he wrote financial and investments analysis articles. Olalekan is a resourceful and result-driven journalist with a track record for conducting extensive research and interviews to produce articles that provide different perspectives to market activities.
Source: Legit.ng
