In November 2021, Bitcoin’s price reached an all-time high of almost $69,000. Fast forward half a year, and the top cryptocurrency had fallen below $20,000. Other cryptos followed the king and crashed even harder. The price rollercoaster made many investors nervous, and now even the most intrepid of optimists are starting to question the ability of the market to recover in the future.
So what can we make of all that, and is it worth buying Bitcoin in these challenging times?
Invest in Crypto Today – Reap Profits Tomorrow
To understand why Bitcoin got where it is now, we should first look into the causes that triggered or facilitated the spectacular rise of the entire crypto market starting in March 2020 (after Bitcoin momentarily dropped below $5,000):
Fears of the economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic set off stock market crashes around the world in late February through March, 2020. The price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which had been in a bear market since the beginning of 2018, also took a hit.
However, the crash turned out to be short-lived. In the first half of 2020, many nations embarked on the so-called quantitative easing by providing fiscal stimulus and running relief programs (over 5T dollars in the US alone). Some of that liquidity inevitably ended up on the stock market and in cryptocurrencies.
Basically, it was the money from the printing press that fueled the party.
But it couldn’t last indefinitely, and as inflation in these nations started to pick up, central banks shifted into reverse gear and now carry out what came to be known as quantitative tightening – a monetary policy aimed at taking liquidity from the economy.
And risk assets such as cryptocurrencies and stocks of technology companies suffer most under these circumstances.
However, this environment won’t exist forever, either. Contractionary monetary policies hurt not only digital assets with tech stocks, but the real economy as well. Sooner or later, the central bankers will have to retire quantitative tightening – whether they succeed at holding back inflation or not.
In fact, there have only been several occasions in the past 100+ years of US stock market history when stocks declined for two years in a row. Actually, we’ve seen that in crypto market too as the previous crypto winter lasted just a little longer than two years:
Indeed, two years is a huge amount of time in crypto, but who said that we will have to wait as much until the bull returns?
In any case, cryptocurrencies are here to stay.
While it is entirely possible that we haven’t yet reached the bottom and the worst is yet to come, so far Bitcoin has always been making up lost ground at the end of the day. As Victor Niederhoffer, a former money manager for George Soros, puts it, if you are going to err on one side or the other, it pays to err on the side of optimism.
And that means being long Bitcoin (not investment advice).
Where to Buy Bitcoin in Nigeria with Debit/Credit Card
When it comes to buying Bitcoin with Naira (NGN) via such payment methods as bank transfer and debit/credit card, the choice is not too great.
You can use a number of local exchanges (for example, NairaEx), which are not like regular ones with orderbooks (think Binance here), but rather swap services. Here you can set the amount of cryptocurrency to be bought (sold) and select the payment method to be used, but you can’t set the price:
These services allow you to quickly exchange one cryptocurrency for fiat, and that seems to be their only advantage (Binance offers currency swaps too, by the way).
As said above, the price on these exchanges is determined by the service, not the user, and most certainly includes hidden fees (check the spreads in the screenshot). This is in contrast to order-book based exchanges and peer-to-peer (p2p) marketplaces where the price discovery process is transparent and straightforward.
Given that the Nigerian central bank made it virtually impossible for non-Nigerian exchanges to stay in the game and trade Bitcoin for Naira (with direct fiat deposits and withdrawals via bank transfers and debit/credit cards), your only viable alternative is p2p marketplaces. Although you may still try your luck with Binance and its NGN:USDT trading pair.
Or, without any further ado, you can head over to Bitpapa – a trusted p2p marketplace which offers a bunch of payment methods to buy Bitcoin with Naira.
Buying Crypto on Bitpapa
On p2p marketplaces you buy and sell cryptos by trading with other users directly. All fiat transactions between the users happen outside the platform, while the marketplace ensures that both the buyer and the seller keep up their end of the bargain.
Bitpapa is built on these principles and offers you an opportunity to trade the following cryptocurrencies:
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Bitcoin
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Ethereum
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TON
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Monero
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USDT
When you open a trade to buy crypto, the seller's coins are locked in escrow, and you can be certain that the seller won’t run off with your money after you pay him. A good seller releases the crypto from escrow as soon as he receives the payment, but even in the worst case scenario, the marketplace will make it even by releasing the coins itself.
The process of purchasing Bitcoin with debit/credit card is simple and includes:
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creating account on the platform
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browsing available offers
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opening a trade and making payment
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receiving and withdrawing coins
Let’s check what these steps are.
Creating account
Signing up with the service won’t take you long. You set a password and submit your email, then activate your new account by following the link in the email that you should receive shortly. If you don’t see the email from Bitpapa within a few minutes, check your spam box.
Phone number confirmation and identity verification are not required on Bitpapa.
However, if you want to trade with verified users who require that from other users, this is something you need to consider.
Browsing available offers
On p2p marketplaces, users are not bound by the best price offered to buy or sell crypto, and decide for themselves who they want to buy it from and at what price.
Bitpapa honors this assumption and allows you to browse offers (ads in the peer-to-peer lingo) so that you can choose the ad that suits your needs better. This is not necessarily the best ad in terms of price as you might be looking for traders with the highest reputation on the platform or according to some other metric of your own.
And to narrow down the list of available offers, you can specify such parameters as the cryptocurrency offered, fiat currency to pay for it and payment method.
Then, if you want to buy Bitcoin with Naira and pay for coins via debit/credit card, you select the relevant options in the Filter widget:
Bitpapa filters the ads and shows you the sorted list from which you can choose the ad which is best for you:
Please note that some ads are unavailable on this account as it hasn't been verified.
And if you are not happy with the available offers, you can always create your own to buy as well as to sell Bitcoin.
Making trades
The seller is expected to post his credit/debit card number in the chat that becomes available after you open a trade to buy crypto. You send the money to the card specified, and if the seller asks you to do so, also attach a proof of money transfer in the chat.
The seller then checks the payment and releases the coins from escrow, which are instantly added to your account balance. If something goes wrong and you can’t sort it out with the seller on your own, you can start a dispute.
In that case, Bitpapa intervenes and helps you out. If you did pay the seller in full and can prove it (by submitting, for example, a bank statement), the service releases the coins instead of the seller.
The trades on Bitpapa are completed in under 5 minutes on average.
Receiving and withdrawing coins
Once the seller releases coins from escrow, they are automatically credited to your account, so you don’t need to do anything.
But you can always choose to withdraw your Bitcoin. Bitpapa equips you with a free cryptocurrency wallet (integrated with your account), which you can use to send, receive and store cryptocurrencies supported by the platform.
Margin of Safety
It is unlikely that the price of top cryptocurrencies will reach zero in the foreseeable future. It means, by and large, that you can invest more than you can afford to lose. Ultimately, it all boils down to whether you can afford to invest further after the price starts to go lower, and come out the winner when the tide eventually goes back.
That’s what the real margin of safety is about.
FAQ
Q: What Is the Minimum Amount to Buy Bitcoin in Nigeria?
A: Typically, p2p marketplaces do not set the minimum amounts for purchasing Bitcoin as it is entirely up to sellers to specify their own minimum and maximum amounts
Q: Should I Buy Cryptocurrency in Nigeria?
A: If you want to preserve the purchasing power of your capital in the long run, Bitcoin is your friend
Q: Is Buying Bitcoin Safe?
A: Yes, as long as you use a trusted marketplace and choose a seller with well-deserved reputation
Q: What Is the Minimum Deposit for Bitpapa?
A: There’s no minimum deposit amount on Bitpapa, but it may be not economical to send small amounts due to high network fees
