We may receive advertising compensation when you click certain products. Before jumping into this page, an important disclosure.
Luno Luno is a Bitcoin exchange with a presence in South Africa, Singapore, Nigeria, Malaysia and Indonesia. It offers 0% fees for market makers, meaning you can avoid fees if you place a buy order then wait for a seller to take it.
Luno also offers an Instant Buy feature.
Founded mid-2011, Kraken is the one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, and the largest in Europe based on daily average trading volume. It is available in almost all countries.
Deposits can be made via bank wire, SEPA, ACH and SWIFT. Users can buy bitcoin, ethereum, dogecoin and dozens of other coins.
LocalBitcoins is an escrow service which also helps to match bitcoin buyers and sellers. Users may advertise trades for whichever payment method they prefer.
Buying bitcoins via an in-person meeting, secured and facilitated by LocalBitcoins, may be one of the fastest and most private ways to buy bitcoins in any country, including the United States, Europe (besides Germany), UK, Singapore, Canada, Australia and many more.
NairaEx is the largest Bitcoin exchange in Nigeria. Its customers can purchase bitcoins with Perfect Money, bank transfer or with cash via bank deposit.
BitPesa is a Bitcoin remittance company. They sell bitcoin in Kenya via the popular M-PESA mobile payment service. BitPesa also has a presence in 2 other African countries. In Nigeria, you can use BitPesa to buy bitcoins with your debit card or Paga account. In Uganda, you can buy with MTN or Airtel. Purchase method for Kenya is coming soon.
You can use our Bitcoin ATM map to buy bitcoins with cash. Bitcoin ATMs can be a quick and easy way to buy bitcoins and they're also private. That convenience and privacy, however, comes with a price; most ATMs have fees of 5-10%.
-
Beyond simply buying and selling Bitcoin, many people are interested in actively trading crypto.
While Luno or NairaEX will let you do this, their interfaces are similar to Coinbase in that they're geared toward retail investing rather than trading. Additionally, liquidity may not be great enough on these smaller exchanges to avoid slippage, which will cut into your profitable trades and magnify your losses.
The best platforms for trading are the large exchanges with global coverage. These exchanges list hundreds of asset pairs, have deep orderbooks, and are less prone to downtime than smaller operations.
You may find CoinMarketCap's ranking of exchanges by overall liquidity useful when deciding where to take your business.
In addition to Binance - whose offerings tailored to Nigerian customers we went through above - some good choices of exchange are Kraken, Bitfinex, and Coinbase Pro.
All of these exchanges will provide you with a customizable trading interface, complete with all the tools and indicators you could need to maximize your chances of trading profitably.
We've compiled a list of the best Bitcoin exchanges in Nigeria, from locally-operated exchanges to worldwide market leaders with especially good offerings for Nigerian users.
NairaEX touts itself as "Nigeria's Premier Bitcoin Exchange" and it is indeed the only Nigeria-based exchange currently open for trading.
The only fiat currency that NairaEX currently accepts is the Nigerian Naira (NGN).
You can only buy and sell with/to NGN, meaning conversions between BTC and ETH or other supported assets are not possible.
NairaEX currently supports Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ethereum.
There are no additional trading fees for buying or selling on NairaEX. Instead, fees are baked into the price of the asset. You can see the current spread on NairaEX's homepage.
One major benefit of NairaEX's setup is that it is a non-custodial exchange. This means that your assets are not held in a centralized wallet, which are prone to hacks, but instead are sent directly to your own wallet once the transaction has been processed.
NairaEX supports buying and selling with the Nigerian Naira (NGN) as well as Perfect Money. Their official blog has a helpful post outlining the differences between Bitcoin and Perfect Money for those unfamiliar with both e-currencies.
Signup requires access to a Nigerian phone number.
You do not need to complete identity verification to sell Bitcoin, but in order to buy NairaEX requires your Bank Verification Number (BVN), an acceptable Government-Issued Photo ID, and a selfie of you holding your Photo ID card with today’s date and NairaEx written on a piece of paper.
NairaEX also has a Pro offering, which enables trading using conventional market interfaces as well as an extra currency pair: USDT/NGN.
Luno was originally launched as BitX in 2013 and since then it has grown to be a player in some niche markets around the world. Deriving most of its volume from South Africa, Luno is also popular in Nigeria and has recently expanded to service Bitcoiners in Uganda too. Add to this list Europe, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and you've got yourself an exchange worth considering.
Luno aims to provide a competing service to Coinbase, and has made its offerings available in many countries not served by the larger exchange.
Since our original in-depth review of Luno, they've added support for Litecoin, which along with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP are available for trading.
Notably, Luno allows you to purchase crypto using a credit card. Fiat trading pairs that are available include EUR, IDR, MYR, NGN, UGX, ZAR, and ZMW. You can deposit and withdraw directly to a bank account.
Luno also offers Paystack and PayU deposits for Nigerian customers.
When trading, market makers pay 0% fees, while market takers pay from 0.25% to 0.15%, depending on their 30 day trading volume. These fees are very competitive compared to other exchanges.
Luno's daily volume is relatively low at a daily avwerage of ~USD$4.75MM over the last year. This puts it in 203rd place out of 389 in Nomics' review of exchanges by liquidity and transparency.
Luno boasts a clean trading interface in the same style as most, meaning you shouldn't have much trouble switching over from a different exchange. You can trade on the Luno app, which is available for iOS and Android.
More advanced features include API integration for automated trading, liquidity depth indicators, and the ability to export your trade history in a .csv file for when the time comes to file your taxes.
LocalBitcoins is a great option for buying and selling Bitcoin in Nigeria using a variety of payment methods.
From the looks of it, bank transfers are especially popular in Nigeria.
Once a deal is opened, the seller will fund the escrow wallet with the Bitcoin to be bought. The buyer will transfer the money and once the seller confirms receipt they will release the BTC. Should there be any disagreement, the BTC will stay locked in escrow until a solution is found, which may require LocalBitcoins stepping in to act as mediators.
Recently, Binance has been greatly expanding its support for Nigerian users.
Early in 2020, Binance hosted its first ever Crypto Masterclass in Benin, Nigeria. These events are run by local experts and aim to educate and raise awareness about Bitcoin and blockchain.
Complementing its education program, Binance has also made it easier than ever for Nigerians to buy, sell, and trade crypto on its platform.
You can now deposit NGN directly into your Binance account using a credit or debit card, following a partnership with Flutterwave.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, about 95 million people remain unbanked while many regions in the area, including Nigeria, have embraced new technologies with an increasing amount of innovation. Working with Flutterwave will help bridge the fiat-to-cryptocurrency gap and we hope to stimulate more financial inclusion as Africa demonstrates strong potential in leading crypto adoption.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ) CEO, BinanceIn addition to allowing users to buy Bitcoin with a debit or credit card, Binance also has a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace, similar to Paxful or LocalBitcoins.
Unlike Paxful or LocalBitcoins however, Binance P2P does not charge any transaction fees. The price you see is the price you get.
Binance has a useful support guide for P2P trading here.
Binance's strong advocacy programs and the fact that it makes an effort to cater to under-served users who can most benefit from Bitcoin means that the exchange stands out from the pack.
-
Nigeria is home to several small to medium sized Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges.
-
There are three main types of Bitcoin wallet and all of them are supported in Nigeria:
The Ledger Nano X is the newest crypto hardware wallet, and is very easy to use. It connects to iOS, Android & desktop computers.
ZenGo is an easy-to-use iOS and Android Bitcoin & crypto wallet. Start within 20 seconds.
Electrum is a Bitcoin-only wallet that has been around since 2011. It's easy to use, but has advanced features.
-
We've got a chart here at Buy Bitcoin Worldwide that tracks the up to the minute price of Bitcoin and provides historical data in USD.
You can check out the Bitcoin Volatility Index or see how many days it's been since the last all time high (ATH). We also have a chart displaying the price of Bitcoin in grams and ounces of gold.
For price data in a range of foreign currencies, such as Naira, Luno has a page where you can check the price of Bitcoin in any of their supported fiat pairs, which include EUR, GBP, IDR, MYR, NGN, PLN, SGD, UGX, USD, ZAR, and ZMW.
Source: Luno Alternatively, if you use a portfolio tracker such as Delta or Blockfolio, you can set the reference currency as the Nigerian Naira (NGN) and get an accurate price of Bitcoin and all 10,000 supported assets in your currency of choosing.
-
Nigeria is currently not supported by Coinbase, meaning Nigerian users are unable to access the exchange.
However, anyone can use Coinbase Wallet which enables the sending and receiving of cryptocurrencies. You just won't be able to buy, sell, or convert from one crypto to another on Coinbase.
Jordan Tuwiner is the founder of BuyBitcoinWorldwide.com. His work has been featured in The Guardian, International Business Times, Forbes, VentureBeat, CoinDesk and many other top Bitcoin media outlets. His articles are read by millions of people each year looking for the best way to buy Bitcoin and crypto in their country.
He has also written extensively about the history, technology, and business of the crypto world. Jordan is also the creator of some of the internet's most famous Bitcoin pages, including The Quotable Satoshi and Bitcoin Obituaries.
To learn more about Jordan, see his full bio.
Kraken
LocalBitcoins
NairaEx
BitPesa
Bitcoin ATMs