Last updated on April 30th, 2022 at 11:38 am
Several data over the past two years about the excitement of Nigerians over bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, Solana, Litecoin, and other cryptocurrencies among Nigerians is enormous.
We’ve heard about stories of crypto traders whose lives have been changed; bankers who abandoned their banking jobs to fully engage in buying and selling of crypto among other encouraging success stories.
On the other way, there are bad guys who are exploring the loopholes to dupe or use them for illicit transactions.
Added to some of the problems was the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) led by Godwin Emefiele in 2021 to place restrictions on cryptocurrency trading, which helped the Peer-To-Peer crypto trading surge close to 30% till date.
Despite the restrictions placed on the trading of crypto-related assets, we will share with you platforms where you can still buy cryptocurrency safely without sanctions from the apex bank.
Binance P2P
Binance is the largest P2P crypto trading platform globally. It has nearly all the listed coins on CoinMarketCap on its platform.
With the large listing of major cryptos on binance, all you need to do is to play around with the platform and see how it works.
To enjoy the full benefits of trading on binance, you may have to undergo KYC, it’s aimed at protecting traders.
NairaEx
NairaEx has been around for some time. It was one of the earliest crypto players in the Nigerian market. It’s a bitcoin exchange where traders can buy and sell BTC, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin.
Remitano
Another great platform to buy cryptocurrency in Nigeria is remitano. It has close 2 million trading on its platform.
While the apex bank directed financial institutions to close accounts that are used to fund crypto wallet instead of the CBN to adjust to the new normal, remitano is raking in millions of naira every month by making trading bitcoin easy for Nigerians who are newbies in the crypto community. And this is how it works.
- Set up an account and verify it
- Choose the coin you want to buy. It’s called opening a trade
- Click buy now
- Enter the amount you want to buy
- It displays its value in the crypto you chose and the seller
- When you open a trade, the remitano keeps the coin in its custody till you make payment to the seller.
- When the seller confirms your payment, the platform releases your coin into your wallet.
With this system in place, you can complete a trade in less than five minutes, depending on how fast the seller is.
The advantage of remitano over paxful is that it has seven crypto assets you can choose from. They include: BTC, ETH, Tether (USDT), BitcoinCash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), and Binance Coin (BNB)
The downside of remitano: High fees, especially when you swap your currency. Fees are too high. But it’s better than not having access to the crypto world.
Quidax
Quidax is another platform that makes trading cryptocurrency easy and fun, especially with its updated app.
We all know that cryptocurrency generally is volatile, but the ability to set price alerts using the quidax app even makes it cool.
It also enables its traders to swap currencies. What this means is that if you have bitcoin and you want some ethereum to settle payment, you can easily swap.
Luno
Before the CBN’s crypto restrictions, luno was the most popular among Nigerians because traders were able to easily purchase crypto with their debit cards on the platform.
Since restrictions are in place, luno has also up its game by coming up with a new design and methodology including the luno savings which allows you to get 7.6% interest per year on their crypto assets savings.
If you are a beginner, luno is should be your choice. It isn’t technical at all.
LocalBitcoin
It is one of the oldest crypto platforms where Nigerians can buy cryptocurrency and it is easy to use. You can also sell on the platform.
Merits: Low transaction fees
Downside: Possibility of getting scammed, especially when you PayPal on the platform.
Yellow Card
If your choice of crypto is bitcoin, ethereum and Tether and you want a platform with an extremely low fess, you can your time to play around on Yellow Card card to see and compare with platforms like Paxful and Remitano.
One-On-One
My colleague at the office has some bitcoins to sell while I want to buy with naira. He transfers BTC to my wallet. And I send him cash either through bank transfer or physical cash.
Caution: Don’t use this method unless you personally know and trust your colleague. Don’t engage in this kind of crypto transaction in a lonely place. Do transactions in the open even if you’re so with a trusted colleague.
Paxful
Paxful has been around for some time and it isn’t strange to the bitcoin community in Nigeria. Launched in 2015, Nigerians had been using paxful.
And according to the co-founder and the CEO of Paxful Ray Youssef, Nigeria remains the largest crypto trader on paxful.
In an interview with Business Insiders Africa, he disclosed that there are 1.5 million crypto users on the P2P platforms.
According to him, over $1.5 billion volume of trade has been executed by crypto traders (buyers and sellers) in Nigeria from 2015 to date.
The platform is very easy to use, sign up and verify your email address.
Advantage of using paxful: Its diversified means of payment is overwhelmingly great.
How to Buy cryptos On Paxful
- Set up an account and verify it
- Choose the crypto you want to buy
- Allow the system to load sellers
- Each of the traders has the payment method supported by them
- Choose your preferred one
- Make payment
- Load the evidence of payment to the dashboard and send to the seller
- The seller releases the equivalent of money paid in crypto into your crypto wallet
The downside of paxful: You can only buy three major coins (bitcoin, ethereum, and Tether.
Recap:
The crypto-asset restriction by the CBN isn’t a ban on cryptocurrency in Nigeria. The listed above platforms make it simple for Nigeria to buy the crypto of their choice.
It’s imperative to note that crypto is volatile and you should take your time to check our trading disclaimer regarding this.
Note: The platforms above are custodian exchange, they can monitor the activity on your account.
Above all, cryptocurrency is going to make financial institutions adjust to the reality of blockchain technology.
BuyCoins Africa is another fast crypto exchange platform you can buy digital coins in Nigeria
