Nigeria may regulate bitcoin trade, calling the crypto-currency a ‘gamble’
Abuja/Johannesburg/Lagos — Nigeria, where bitcoin trading grew the most in Africa last year, has said investing in the crypto-currency is a "gamble" and hinted it may have to be regulated. "Crypto-currency or bitcoin is like a gamble, and there is a need for everybody to be very careful," Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele said in an interview on Wednesday at his office in the capital, Abuja. "We cannot, as a central bank, give support to situations" where people risk savings to gamble." Emefiele is the latest among regulators globally to express concern about bitcoin, one of the most popular crypto-currencies, because of high volatility and a perception that it facilitates crime. In January 2017, the central bank released a circular to lenders asking them not to use, hold, or trade virtual currencies pending "substantive regulation and or decision by the CBN". Still, demand for the digital currency is surging in West Africa’s biggest economy, with peer-to-peer t...
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