The Most Curious Nation About Crypto Is Nigeria, Study Shows

Africa's most-populous nation showed more interest in cryptocurrencies than any other country since the digital assets began to decline in April, according to a study by price tracker CoinGecko. From a report: Nigeria scored 371 in the study that looked at Google Trends data for six searches such as "buy crypto" or "invest in crypto" that were then combined to give each English-speaking nation a total search ranking. The West African country was followed by the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. "This study provides interesting insight into which countries remain most interested in cryptocurrency in spite of market pullbacks," CoinGecko's co-founder Bobby Ong said in an emailed statement. "The countries at the top of this list appear to be keenest to buy the dip, and highlight their long-term outlook for cryptocurrencies."

Reason is obvious...

[Midnight_Falcon]

You mean the place that is known for the "Nigerian advance fee fraud," 419 scams, robocalls and other shady activites is interested in Crypto?

The biggest problem scammers have is exfiltrating their money to Nigeria. Often this causes a ton of loss, with shipping fees, or the need to recruit other fraud victims (work from home) to re-ship items, or other fees in laundering the cash such as having someone receive it in Haiti (or similar country) and take a cut.

So OF COURSE they'd like crypto..and also..it opens up a whole new kind of scam: Crypto advance fee fraud!

We have crypto to thank for ransomware

[rsilvergun]

It made it a thousand times easier and massively lowered the barrier to entry. Yeah there are other ways to launder that money but they're much riskier. And yes crypto can be traced but it takes a long time for law enforcement to learn how to do something like that. They're only just now getting to the point where they can trace crypto out of a wallet.

I'm a little surprised there hasn't been more of a push from businesses who are being targeted by ransomware. All I can figure is that with Goldman Sachs

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[GameboyRMH]

It made it a thousand times easier and massively lowered the barrier to entry.

This is actually a bit of an understatement. There were less than 10 pieces of ransomware that ever existed before cryptocurrency, and one of them was mailed out on disks by a madman. Cryptocurrency changed ransomware from a rare oddity for the malware curio cabinet to the bread-and-butter moneymaker of cybercrime.

WU + money mules was the main method of laundering the proceeds of cybercrime in the pre-CC era, but with that system ransomware was basically not worth trying.

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[sysrammer]

It made it a thousand times easier and massively lowered the barrier to entry.

There were less than 10 pieces of ransomware that ever existed before cryptocurrency, and one of them was mailed out on disks by a madman.

I see you got some of those AOL disks, too.

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[Midnight_Falcon]

I mean, I've known fraud victims who've gone to the bank after being scammed for months to deposit yet another fake check. Tellers plead with them not to deposit it, it's fake, it's a scam, and they do so anyway. The bank has no choice but to process the transaction.

. I've also known scam victims who have sent money via Western Union to countries like Haiti, and Western Union continues to operate in every Wal-Mart in America.

So, I think laws have a long way to go to make it more difficult to become a s

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[TwistedGreen]

Sometimes you just can't fix stupid.

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[GameboyRMH]

It's probably also worth noting that they have a significant domestic terrorism problem.

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[devslash0]

Nigerian Prince is finally catching up with modern technology. ;-)

Scammers seeking a new Scam

[Anonymous Coward]

Makes sense that a nation known for scammers would be out seeking a new scam to scam people with. Nigeria and crypto a perfect scam looking for a perfect scammer.

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[Rick Zeman]

Makes sense that a nation known for scammers would be out seeking a new scam to scam people with. Nigeria and crypto a perfect scam looking for a perfect scammer.

How meta is that? Scammers trying to exploit a scam technology.

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[sarren1901]

I wouldn't say they are trying to exploit the technology but rather embrace it for all it's glory.

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[garyisabusyguy]

Expecting LagosCoin in 3... 2...

Sarcasm!

[kamapuaa]

Holy Shit! Nigerians are interested in a get rich quick scheme?

Sigh

[MightyMartian]

The jokes write themselves

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[sysrammer]

The jokes write themselves

Pretty much. From the color-me-unsurpised department of the usual gang of idiots.

Re: headline ambiguity

[Flownez]

Agreed, In past days this would have been identified and corrected as a matter of editorial pride. Unfortunately vagueness in titles seems to be an evolutionary result of the click driven revenue model. Abuse of the language and logic appears to be a great way to achieve such nebularity.

Poor prince...

[bettodavis]

Could never take his money off the country due to the mistrustful people never believing his good faith email offers.

Thankfully he can now invest in crypto!

Makes sense

[bwt]

I'm sure the anti-crypto lunes will say all kinds of derogatory stuff here, but it makes total sense that Nigeria would be the most interested. They have a large, young, unbanked population and are an up and coming economy, poised for growth, but limited by the lack of a robust financial system. I'd expect India to also have interest for the same reasons. They are basically being handed a financial system through crypto that isn't dominated by a foreign government trying to exploit them.

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[divide overflow]

They are basically being handed a financial system through crypto that isn't dominated by a foreign government trying to exploit them.

Or they're being handed a tool by which anyone can anonymously exploit them.
A quantum improvement in exploitation.

What do you expect?

[dsgrntlxmply]

Nigeria has a large problem with crude oil theft and, astonishingly, with illegal refineries. Crude goes out, money looks for a way to get back in.

Giftcards run Nigeria

[slazzy]

I think secondhand Giftcards run the Nigerian economy

Well, who would have thunk

[RUs1729]

This from a country that has earned a reputation for itself as an endless source of scam and fraud over the last quarter of a century.