Major global cryptocurrency exchange, Binance will discontinue all services for Nigeria’s fiat currency, the Naira, following the ongoing regulatory onslaught on the firm by the Nigerian authorities.
Binance announced on March 5 that the platform will suspend NGN withdrawals after March 8. From March 8, any remaining NGN balances in users’ Binance accounts will be automatically converted to the Tether
The exchange has encouraged users to withdraw NGN, trade their NGN assets or convert NGN into crypto prior to the discontinuation of these NGN services.
“Please note that the conversion rate is calculated based on the average closing price of the USDT/NGN trading pair on Binance Spot in the last seven days,” the announcement added.
Also, all trading pairs involving NGN are set to be removed on Binance on March 7, according to the announcement. Binance’s payment service Binance Pay will also remove NGN from the list of supported payment options on March 6.
Binance also mentioned that Binance’s peer-to-peer platform delisted all NGN trading pairs in late February.
Recently, following the free fall of Naira, President Bola Tinubu’s administration accused Binance of economic sabotage.
Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information & Strategy, Bayo Onanuga while speaking during an interview on Channels Television, said that the cryptocurrency trading website, Binance will destroy Nigeria’s economy if it’s not clamped down.
Onanuga alleged that Binance is arbitrarily fixing the foreign exchange rate.
He said, “If we don’t clamp down on Binance, Binance will destroy the economy of this country. They just fix the rate. We have saboteurs. Look at what Binance is doing to our economy.
“That is why the government moved against Binance. Some people sit down using cyberspace to dictate even our exchange rate, hijacking the role of the CBN.
“They just sit down and fix anything they like. It’s a sabotage and we are trying to prevent that from happening henceforth.”
Also, on Thursday last week, two Binance top executives were arrested by security operatives in Nigeria.
They had visited Nigeria following the government’s ban on several cryptocurrency trading platforms.
The two top officials were immediately taken into custody by the office of the national security adviser, with their passports seized.
Their detention highlight the escalating tensions between Nigerian government and the crypto market, which has become rendezvous for speculative trading on the naira.
The Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Olayemi Cardoso, cited Binance in a recent press conference. He expressed concerns over the illicit and suspicious financial flows through crypto platforms.
According to Cardoso, an alarming $26 billion has been transacted through Binance Nigeria in the past year. This has raised eyebrows over the sources and users involved in these transactions.
