The Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, has said that digital currencies have a place in the country.
He made this known during the 279th Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja.
Emefiele said, “We are committed in the CBN and I can assure everybody that digital currency will come to life even in Nigeria.”
This revelation by the CBN aligns with the trend in developed nations in the world. The central banks of China, South Korea, the United States, and a host of other countries are in the process of launching their own digital currencies also.
Raising concerns about cryptocurrencies, Emefiele said, “We have carried out our investigation and we found out that a substantial percentage of our people are getting involved in cryptocurrency which is not the best. Don’t get me wrong, some may be legitimate but most are illegitimate.
“Under cryptocurrency and Bitcoin, Nigeria comes second while in the global side of the economy, Nigeria comes 27th. We are still conducting our investigation and we will make our data available.”
Since the CBN’s ban on cryptocurrencies, peer-to-peer trading has increased greatly. Paxful, a crypto trading platform, recently announced that Nigerians had traded $1.5bn to become its biggest market.
In a February 7, 2021 circular, the CBN had said, “First, in light of the fact that they are issued by unregulated and unlicensed entities, their use in Nigeria goes against the key mandates of the CBN, as enshrined in the CBN Act (2007), as the issuer of legal tender in Nigeria.
“In effect, the use of cryptocurrencies in Nigeria is a direct contravention of existing law. It is also important to highlight that there is a critical difference between a Central Bank issued digital currency and cryptocurrencies. As the names imply.
“While Central Banks can issue digital currencies, cryptocurrencies are issued by unknown and unregulated entities.”
At the time, the CBN had said it was not comfortable with cryptocurrencies and would continue to educate Nigerians to desist from their use.
On Wednesday, Bitcoin was $38,759.82. It had a 24-hour trading volume of $51,860,292,492. Bitcoin was up 3.15per cent. It had a live market cap of $725,541,490,035, a circulating supply of 18,718,906 BTC coins and, a max. supply of 21,000,000 BTC coins. Ethereum was $2,749.90 USD. It had a 24-hour trading volume of $43,091,951,245. Ethereum was up 7.64per cent. It had a live market cap of $319,077,785,161 USD, a circulating supply of 116,032,698 ETH coins and, its max. supply was not available. Dogecoin was $0.340796 USD. It had a 24-hour trading volume of $3,655,048,720. Dogecoin was down 0.16per cent. It had a live market cap of $44,222,546,935, a circulating supply of 129,762,668,630 DOGE coins, and its max. supply was not available.
Source: Punch