Significant inflation and the declining value of national fiat currencies have probably increased interest in bitcoin.
Even though the asset is currently trading 50% below its peak in US dollars, declining national fiat currencies and an overall uncertain economy have contributed to driving bitcoin (BTC) to all-time high values in Turkey and Nigeria.
Data indicates that bitcoin has crossed price peaks versus the Turkish lira and the Nigerian naira due to recent price increases. The value of bitcoin as of Friday morning was 960,000 against the Turkish lira (TRY) and 27.4 million against the Naira (NGN), bringing its monthly gains to a maximum of 30% in local currency.
According to CoinGecko, local cryptocurrency exchanges have transacted $40 million worth of bitcoin in total over the last 24 hours. Locals dealing on international exchanges like Binance or Coinbase might not be included in this statistic.
In relation to the US dollar, the naira has decreased by 0.45% this month and by 45% over the last six months, while the lira has decreased by 2.9% this month and 31% over the last six months.
According to an IMF analysis, inflation in Nigeria increased by 25% from 2022 to 2023 while it skyrocketed in Turkey by 51%, which resulted in a sharp decline in the purchasing power of TRY and NGN. This has probably increased interest in bitcoin, a fictitious currency.
Nigeria and Turkey both have sizable levels of cryptocurrency usage. According to a September investigation by the research firm Chainalysis, Nigeria is the nation with the second-highest number of users engaged in cryptocurrency trading and decentralized financing (DeFi), right after India. Turkey came up at number twelve out of the twenty countries.
This past week, excitement among cryptocurrency investors was sparked by expectations of a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval in the United States. This led to bitcoin reaching 20% weekly gains and nearly record-breaking options activity.
Prior to last week, price volatility had been missing for several months. However, this week, it seemed to resurface when bitcoin surged above $35,000 in a matter of hours due to irrational enthusiasm caused by the discovery of a ticker linked to BlackRock’s proposed bitcoin ETF, which some may have interpreted as an indication of approval.
