Bitcoin, the world’s most dominant cryptocurrency, is currently selling at a 63% premium in Nigeria due to currency shortages amid new bank withdrawal limits that have increased demand for the unregulated virtual currency.

Bitcoin’s price soared to N17.8 million or $38,630 per coin on Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, used primarily by retail traders in Africa’s largest economy.

In the global market, the Bitcoin price stood at $23,656 per coin at approximately 9:37 am Nigerian time on Monday, January 30, 2023. This indicates that the digital currency is selling for $14,974 or a premium. 63% on the current price of the product. , king of investors Research has shown.

Chronic currency shortages due to a number of weak fundamentals have plunged the Nigerian naira against its global counterparts since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The Nigerian naira is currently trading at N460 per US dollar on the interbank forex section, while on the parallel or black market, the local currency is trading at N750 per US dollar in the early hours of Monday.

Cryptocurrency traders and companies in Nigeria mainly traded at the black market rate due to the inaccessibility of N460/$1. Therefore, it is the rate quoted and used on the Binance Peer2Peer (p2p) platform and other currency segments where the dollar is readily available.

This wide exchange rate, along with the new Naira policy that restricted withdrawals to N500,000 per week for individuals and N5 million for corporate entities, boosted demand for digital assets.

Bitcoin price plunged from $68,990 to $15,480 in 2022 after Luna fell from $119 per coin or over $40 billion market cap to zero.

Soon after, other cryptocurrency assets like Solana, Ethereum, BNB, etc. they lost substantial value and kicked off the biggest cryptocurrency downtrend since 2009.

Solana dropped from around $200 a coin to $12, and is currently trading at $25. Ethereum fell from nearly $5,000 to $800 per coin, while BNB halted its decline at $196 before pulling back to $300 at the time of writing, still below the $600 reached in 2022.

Bitcoin is the most capitalized cryptocurrency at $448.92 billion. So far this year, the digital asset has returned 40.17%.