Bitcoin prices in Nigeria have surged well above market levels as the country has restricted automated teller machine (ATM) withdrawals in an effort to push its citizens to digitize cash, Cointelegraph reported. At the time of writing, the price of 1 BTC on Nigerian crypto exchange NairaEX is currently 17.8 million Nigerian Naira, which equates to a whopping $38,792, which is more than 60% above Bitcoin’s current market price. As of January 9, citizens of the country can only withdraw a maximum of 20,000 Nigerian naira (about US$43.5) per day from ATMs, with a maximum limit of 100,000 Nigerian naira (about US$217). The move also comes days before the new naira banknote goes into circulation in an effort to curb inflation and money laundering. The Central Bank of Nigeria has set a deadline of January 24 for Nigerians to exchange their old high-denomination banknotes for the new currency. But people complained that there was not enough time to meet the deadline and had to wait in long lines. In today's news, the Central Bank of Nigeria has now extended this deadline until February 10.