Binance will suspend all Nigerian Naira transactions until March 8

Major global cryptocurrency exchange Binance is pulling out of the Nigerian market, announcing the complete suspension of all services denominated in Nigerian Naira (NGN).

Binance officially announced on March 5 that the platform will stop issuing NGN after March 8. Starting March 8, NGN balances left in users' Binance accounts will be immediately converted to Tether (USDT) stablecoin.

Before these NGN services were terminated, the exchange encouraged users to withdraw NGN, trade their NGN assets or convert NGN to crypto.

“Please note that the conversion rate is calculated based on the average closing price of the USDT/NGN trading pair on Binance Spot over the past seven days,” the announcement added.

Binance will also stop NGN deposits immediately, as such transactions will no longer be supported after 2:00 PM UTC on March 5.

According to the announcement, all trading pairs involving NGN are set to be removed by Binance on March 7. Binance payment service Binance Pay will remove NGN from its list of supported payment options on March 6.

Binance also mentioned that Binance's peer-to-peer platform canceled all NGN trading pairs at the end of February.

The news of the complete removal of the Nigerian Naira from Binance comes at a time when the company is facing significant regulatory scrutiny in Nigeria.

In the year On February 27, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria criticized crypto exchanges in Nigeria for allegedly handling illegal transactions, and also pointed to “suspicious flows” of money flowing through Binance.

Nigeria's National Security Adviser has reportedly confiscated the passports of two Binance executives in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. It is also known that the authorities confiscated the passports of the policemen who are American and British citizens.

As suspicions of Binance's illegal activities in Nigeria are increasing, the Nigerian House of Representatives Committee on Financial Crimes has summoned the CEO of Binance, Richard Teng, to appear before the committee on this matter. Sources indicate that the chairman of the committee has issued an ultimatum to Binance management to appear before the committee on or before March 4.

Related: Binance User Gets Exhausted on Exchange, Shares ‘Strange' Experience

Nigeria has emerged as one of the fastest growing crypto economies in the world over the past few years.

In the year In September 2023, leading crypto data firm Chinalysis named Nigeria second in the world in terms of cryptocurrency adoption. In the year In August 2022, Nigeria was found to be the most depressed country in the world in terms of Google searches for “cryptocurrency” or “buy kripto”.

The regulators seem to be under-appreciating Nigeria's high adoption of crypto. In the year Two years ago, the Central Bank of Nigeria banned regulated financial institutions from operating crypto exchanges in the country.

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