Triple-A data says 22 million Nigerians own crypto: here is why that figure is far fetched

Nigerians, especially the younger demographic, are in love with cryptocurrencies. That’s no longer news. In Nigeria, the nascent blockchain technology is seen as a liberating tool for financial freedom, there is no denying that. 

It is however difficult to come to terms with some figures recently released by a global crypto payment platform, Triple-A which says over 22 million Nigerians currently own cryptocurrencies. The data which was released last week claims that over 420 million people all over the world currently use crypto and out of that, Nigeria can boast of 22 million users.

The Triple-A crypto data 

The data, which was last updated on May 16, and which was retrieved by Technext demonstrates that despite the fact that the cryptocurrency market has been through a lot of unfavourable circumstances over recent weeks and months, the interest of the public in owning crypto assets has not suffered much.

Per the Triple-A data, the average global cryptocurrency ownership rate currently stands at 4.2%, with more than 420 million people using crypto assets around the world. Also, Asia has the largest portion of crypto users (260 million), followed by North America with an average of 54 million, Africa with 38 million, South America with 33 million, Europe with 31 million, and Oceania with 1.5 million.

Specifically, the United States is the country with the largest number of crypto owners (46 million people) followed by India and Pakistan (27 million and 26 million respectively). Nigeria, with 22 million occupies the fourth spot followed by Vietnam, with 20 million crypto users.

By demographics, the analysis shows that 63% of crypto users are male, as opposed to 37% female. Seventy-two per cent of them are younger than 34, and 71% hold a Bachelor’s degree or higher, whereas the annual income of an average crypto owner stands at around $25,000.

Does Nigeria truly have 22 million crypto users?

It might look like every other person in Nigeria knows one or two things about cryptocurrencies but in a country where a significant proportion of its population still does not have access to smartphones and the internet, the 22 million crypto users claim is utopian. 

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While there is no denying the fact that there is a growing user base, it does not automatically indicate those outrageous figures. Triple-A says it used four metrics to arrive at the global ownership data which include (i) Country Weighted Scoring, (ii) Global Weighted Scoring, (iii) Outlier Research and (iv) Primary Data Collection in order to “ obtain the most encompassing and accurate set of statistics in conjunction with the various data sources that we evaluate.”

How these metrics arrived at 22 million Nigeria crypto users is bizarre. Nigeria has a population of above 180 million, according to estimates. And according to DataReportal, the country’s internet penetration stands at 55.3 per cent in 2023, which represents around 90 million internet users. How a nascent technology that is still only popular among young people was able to get 22 million people within that circumstances is strange.

Looking at far more established financial systems, the traditional banking industry. Nigeria is one of the top three unbanked countries in the world, with 40 per cent of its population without a bank account, per a Guardian report. This shows the nation is still grappling with the challenges of financial inclusion and it is a known fact that most crypto users are people that know their way around traditional institutions already.

What can be drawn from all these is that these crypto estimates are done by firms, who have little to no real-life experience with the dynamics of crypto usage in Nigeria.

Ray Youssef shares these sentiments

A discourse ensued last Saturday on Twitter. It was claimed that around 35 per cent of Nigerians own crypto but Ray Youssef who is the immediate past CEO of Paxful (a poster firm for crypto transactions in Nigeria) came out to rebut these claims.

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Note that it is widely reported that 33% of the Nigerian population own Bitcoin but according to Ray Youssef which is expected to be a credible judge, only two to three percent of Nigerians own Bitcoin. He further said the false information emanated from some firm that was never really established in the West African country.

Subsequently, we expect that there will be more data firms that are Nigeria based who can provide a clearer and more vivid picture of crypto usage in Nigeria.