To make it easier for Nigerians to buy cryptocurrencies through peer-to-peer exchanges, Coinbase Wallet has partnered with Onboard Global, a product of local Nigerian startup NestCoin. In November 2022, NestCoin made headlines when it announced that it had to fire roughly thirty of its workers as a result of FTX’s insolvency.
Onboard assists customers in safely storing and safeguarding their cryptocurrency holdings, as opposed to central exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase, where consumers rely on a third party to do so.
The NestCoin portfolio firm called Onboard Global offers customers a variety of ways to buy cryptocurrency. Through its collaboration with cryptocurrency payment gateway OnRamper, customers can purchase cryptocurrency from a number of liquidity providers, such as LocalRamp, Coinify, Neocrypto, Alchemy Pay, and Yellow Card. Users can also buy cryptocurrency from peer-to-peer (P2P) merchants or fund virtual accounts through bank transfers. Merchants are carefully screened and recruited by Onboard via an interest form. This collaboration will give merchants who sell cryptocurrency on Onboard the chance to reach more Coinbase users.
Due to regulatory limitations, users could just send, receive, and convert cryptocurrency on Coinbase in the past. However, full cryptocurrency functionalities were not accessible. “Governing bodies prohibit transactions with certain high-risk regions,” Coinbase had stated. By handling compliance, Onboard will act as a buffer that allows Coinbase to grow while staying inside legal bounds, thanks to the new relationship. With the Onboard P2P platform, Nigerians may now make purchases under $100 without presenting identification and complete transactions in minutes using local currency.
The internationally recognized cryptocurrency company said in a statement that “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.”
Although its competitive threat is now reduced by the limited selection of well-known cryptocurrencies on its Base network, this is probably only a transitory state of affairs. The multinational behemoth might look into partnering with regional platforms that already have connections or introducing other blockchain technologies. Such actions would be consistent with Coinbase’s risk-reduction plan. In the upcoming year, Onboard and Coinbase hope to make this payment option available in more than 50 countries.