Binance exits Nigeria amid allegations of illegal operations

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has announced the discontinuation of services on its platform in Nigeria.

This decision follows increased pressure from the Nigerian government, which has accused Binance of contributing to the devaluation of the Naira against other currencies in the foreign exchange market.

Binance advised users to “withdraw their NGN, trade their NGN assets, or convert NGN into crypto prior to the discontinuation of these NGN services,” according to a company statement.

The deadline for withdrawals and conversions, the company said, is set for March 8, 2024, with specific times provided for each action.

Binance advised its users that NGN deposits will no longer be supported after March 5, 2024, at 14:00 (UTC), and withdrawals of NGN will cease after March 8, 2024, at 06:00 (UTC).

Furthermore, starting from March 8, 2024, at 08:00 (UTC), any remaining NGN balances in users’ Spot and Funding wallets will be automatically converted into USDT at a ratio of 1 USDT = 1,515.13 NGN, Binance said.

In response to the regulatory pressure, Binance will delist all existing NGN spot trading pairs, such as BTC/NGN and USDT/NGN, on March 7, 2024, at 03:00 (UTC). Additionally, Binance Convert will delist NGN and all corresponding pairs on March 7, 2024, at 02:00 (UTC). Binance P2P has already delisted all NGN trading pairs as of February 28, 2024, at 15:00 (UTC).

Furthermore, Binance Auto-Invest will delist NGN after March 6, 2024, at 03:00 (UTC) and Binance will remove NGN from the list of supported payment options on Binance Pay on March 6, 2024, at 03:00 (UTC).

This move by Binance comes in the wake of allegations made by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, in a BBC interview, accusing the cryptocurrency exchange platform of engaging in “illegal transactions” within the country, from which the company allegedly profits substantially.

The President’s spokesman said that these cryptocurrency platforms are “setting the exchange rate for Nigeria” effectively taking on the role of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Additionally, the Nigerian government has also demanded $10 billion from the cryptocurrency exchange platform, with the reasons given in an earlier report by Technology Times.

The Nigerian government’s crackdown on Binance intensified with the arrest of two of the platform’s executives upon their arrival in the country. This move came after Nigeria’s decision to ban several cryptocurrency trading websites, including Binance. The detained executives had their passports seized by the office of the national security adviser.