PARTNERSHIP | Coinbase to Expand Crypto Services in Nigeria in New Partnership with NestCoin

The move comes amid legal trouble for Coinbase's biggest rival Binance, which launched peer-to-peer (P2P) trading services for the Nigerian Naira (NGN) in March 2020. However, the exchange was forced to discontinue this service in March 2024 with authorities accusing it of meddling with the local exchange rate.

Coinbase Wallet has integrated with Onboard Global, a product of local Nigerian startup NestCoin, to offer Nigerians a more accessible way to purchase cryptocurrency via peer-to-peer exchanges.

NestCoin was in the headlines back in November 2022 when it said it was forced to let go of about 30 of its employees following the FTX bankruptcy.


However one year later, the startup secured $1.9 million in new funding to help scale Onboard, a non-custodial wallet, across Africa.

Onboard helps users securely store and protect their crypto assets, in contrast to central exchanges like Binance and Coinbase where users entrust a third-party to secure their assets.

Onboard Global, a NestCoin portfolio company, provides multiple options for users to purchase cryptocurrency. Through its partnership with OnRamper, a crypto payment gateway, users can buy crypto from various liquidity providers, including Yellow Card, Coinify, Neocrypto, Alchemy Pay, and LocalRamp. Additionally, users can fund virtual accounts via bank transfers or purchase crypto from peer-to-peer (P2P) merchants.

Onboard carefully vets and recruits merchants through an interest form. With this partnership, merchants selling crypto on Onboard will now have the opportunity to reach a broader audience on Coinbase.

 

Coinbase Partnership

Previously, users could only send, receive, and convert crypto on Coinbase – full cryptocurrency features were not available due to regulatory restrictions. The company had cited that governing bodies ‘prohibit transactions with certain high-risk regions.’

 

Thanks to the new partnership, Onboard will handle compliance, providing a buffer that enables Coinbase to expand while remaining within regulatory limits. With the Onboard P2P platform, Nigerians can now complete transactions in minutes using local currency, with purchases under $100 requiring no ID verification.

“With Onboard P2P, Coinbase Wallet users can purchase crypto using local currency from a network of seller merchants in as little as 5 minutes, with no need for ID verification if you buy under $100 in total,” the global crypto giant said in a statement.

 

Base, Coinbase’s layer-2 blockchain network, will play a key role in this partnership by offering a scalable, low-cost protocol for crypto transactions. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, Base allows users to access:

  • Ether ($ETH)
  • ERC-20 tokens like USD Coin (USDC), Dai ($DAI)
  • Wrapped Bitcoin ($WBTC)
  • Chainlink ($LINK), and
  • Over 540 other tokens

When the network is uncongested, Base achieves speeds of up to 95 transactions per second (TPS), outperforming many other protocols.

The move comes amid legal trouble for Coinbase’s biggest rival Binance, which launched peer-to-peer (P2P) trading services for the Nigerian Naira (NGN) in March 2020. However, the exchange was forced to discontinue this service in March 2024 with authorities accusing it of meddling with the local exchange rate.

The Nigerian government has also filed a lawsuit against Binance demanding $79.5 billion in compensation for ‘economic losses’ and $2 billion in unpaid taxes.


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