The ongoing epic bull run in Bitcoin has led to an ever widening gap in its market cap against Nigerian blue chip firms like Dangote Cement, MTN or Guaranty Trust Bank.
On Nov. 24, Bitcoin surpassed the $19,000 price mark for the first time since December 2017, breaking another all-time record in its market cap.
At publishing time, Bitcoin’s market cap is $352 billion, up from $345 billion 24 hours ago.
Meanwhile the market capitalisation of the entire Nigerian equity market closed at $47.3 billion on Nov. 24.
This means that Bitcoin is currently worth 8-times the entire Nigerian equity market.
What this implies is that there will continue to be retail and some institutional investors from Nigeria looking to invest in the crypto asset class due to the limited asset diversification options and depth available in the Nigerian market.
Since Bitcoin is priced in dollars it is also a veritable hedge against devaluation for the local Nigerian currency the Naira.
While Nigerian stocks are up 8.6 percent year to date in dollar terms, Bitcoin is up more than 100 percent in 2020 alone.