Binance, which continues to be under investigation in Nigeria, has announced that it will disable all its Naira services.
Naira deposits ceased after March 5 2024 with withdrawals stopping on March 8 2024, the company said.
“Any remaining NGN balances in users’ Binance accounts will be automatically converted to USDT.”
Additionally, Binance delisted all existing NGN spot trading pairs on March 7 2024. Furthermore, the Naira will be eliminated from the list of supported payment options on Binance Pay, the exchange’s payment solution.
This move come after the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) apprehended two executives of the company upon their arrival in the country following a ban on the company’s website. Authorities have alleged that Binance benefited from ‘illegal transactions’ and reportedly imposed a $10 billion fine on the company, according to a presidential aide.
“Binance platform harbors people who fix the exchange rate which quickly affects the Nigerian economy for the time when Nigeria is trying to stabilize the economy,” the aide told BBC.
However, the crypto exchange has denied any knowledge of the fine.
Binance woes in the West African nation were reignited in late February 2024 when reports surfaced of users of the Binance P2P service being unable to complete their trades on the platform. Observers suspected that the government was interfering with the platform amid allegations that the Central Bank and the national telecommunications agency were involved in the reported outages.
The company has been targetted by authorities for its illegal operations in the country.
SEC Nigeria 🇳🇬 Reiterates Warning that Binance Operations are Illegal in the Country
"The Commission again reiterates that the activities of Binance, https://t.co/8dBiGLRtn1 and any such other platform through which the Company solicits investors is neither registered nor… pic.twitter.com/l5gcIB9dGF
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) August 2, 2023
The latest developments come only a few months after the Central Bank of Nigeria lifted a ban on financial institutions and banks against dealing with crypto exchanges, and other crypto asset providers.
According to a circular sent to banks on December 22, 2023, the apex bank acknowledged that the escalating global demand and acceptance of cryptocurrencies render it unreasonable to uphold the strict limitations imposed on financial institutions in 2021.
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