Nearly 500,000 Nigerian CBDC wallets downloaded since launch – Fintech

Nearly half a million e-naira wallets have been downloaded just weeks after Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari officially launched the central bank digital currency (CBDC), the central bank said.

The initial trading volumes of E-Naira

In addition to the 488,000 wallets downloaded, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) spokesperson Osita Nwanisobi confirms that a total of 78,000 merchants from 160 countries have registered to become part of the e-Naira ecosystem.

Despite the seemingly early success of the CBDC, a Test report Bloomberg quotes Nwanisobi as confirming that only $150,000 (62 million naira) worth of the digital currency has been traded since launch. On the other hand, Nigerians traded around 60,215 Bitcoins between 2017 and 2020, currently worth over $3.6 billion.

This trading volume, which according to the report is the largest outside the United States, suggests that the cryptocurrency has become an important alternative to the depreciating naira. As before reported from Bitcoin.com News, some Nigerians working abroad now prefer to send money home via Bitcoin. Others are using the top cryptocurrency to make cross-border payments, while some are now . use BTC to protect against inflation.

Continuous attempts to restrict the use of cryptocurrencies

However, as part of an effort to limit further growth and interest in cryptocurrencies, the CBN has initially directed Financial institutions to cut off cryptocurrency units from the banking system. The launch of E-Naira, Africa’s first CBDC, is the CBN’s latest attempt to steer Nigerians away from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Despite these efforts, a study by Chainalysis still found that Nigeria still has one of the largest proportions of retail users conducting cryptocurrency transactions under $10,000.

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