Paxful Founder Says Only 2-3% of Nigerians Own Bitcoin, Not 33%

• It is widely reported that 33% of the Nigerian population own Bitcoin.
• According to Ray Youssef, only two to three percent of Nigerians own Bitcoin.
• Ray acknowledged that the quality of the few Nigerian Bitcoin users “move mountains”.

According to Ray Youssef, former Paxful CEO, only two to three percent of Nigerians own Bitcoin, contrary to the widely reported 33%. He said the false information emanated from some firm that was never really established in the West African country. 

Ray expressed his opinion in a tweeted reply to Eva Kimani, a Bitcoin supporter who wondered why the alleged huge number of Bitcoin users in Nigeria has not impacted the cryptocurrency’s price. According to Eva, the reported number of Nigerian Bitcoin users was about 74 million people, and they have failed to make any significant upward effect on the price in the last few years.

While debunking the alleged bogus figure, Ray acknowledged that the quality of the few Nigerian Bitcoin users “move mountains”. He described them as 10X talent, and they are all arbitrage traders.

One of Ray’s respondents, Alex Fazel, agreed with his position regarding the estimated number of Bitcoin users in Nigeria. According to him, most of the stats reported are simply bogus. Alex criticized the methodology of arriving at some of these conclusions, noting that the firms use small sample sizes to arrive at their results.

Alex said:

“Most of these stats are bogus. They sample 100 people max, and then report it as a country-wide stat.”

Ray was the founder and CEO of Paxful, a leading peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading platform. The company has been focused in Africa, particularly Nigeria, and has over 1.5 million users from the West African country.

Earlier this year, the Bitcoin trading platform encountered some challenges over regulatory issues and the departure of some key employees. That led to the suspension of operations for about one month. Paxful has since resumed operations, with users able to access their funds and carry out trades.