Binance will discontinue all services for Nigeria’s fiat currency, the naira, amid an ongoing regulatory conflict in the country.
The crypto exchange will automatically convert naira balances to USDT from March 8 at 8:00 a.m. UTC but will cease support for NGN deposits after 14:00 UTC today. Withdrawals will become unsupported after March 8 at 6:00 a.m. UTC.
Posting on its website on Tuesday, Binance said the conversion rate for automatic conversions will be 1 USDT per 1,515.13 naira, according to an announcement.
All spot trading pairs against the naira will be delisted on March 7 at 3:00 a.m. UTC. Open spot orders for these pairs will be automatically closed.
Binance Convert, Binance P2P, the exchange’s Auto Invest feature, and Binance Pay will also cease support for the naira at various dates and times.
ICYMI: The Nigerian government says it is investigating the activities of Binance, a cryptocurrency firm.
The Head of Strategic Communication, Office of the National Security Adviser, Zakari Mijinyawa, disclosed this in a terse statement on Thursday.
The government noted that the outcome of the interagency investigation of Binance’s activities is expected to be made public.
He said, “The office is leading and coordinating an interagency process by law enforcement officers – this includes ongoing investigations into the operations of Binance. Outcomes from this interagency investigation will be made available in due course.”
He, however, did not deny or confirm that the two executives were arrested.
Recall that the Nigerian government has detained two executives of Binance who were in Nigeria to mediate over the platform’s restriction in the country since February 21.
The development comes amid the concerns raised by the Central Bank of Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, over the activities of Binance in Nigeria.
Recall that Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Information & Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, had charged the CBN and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to clampdown on Binance and other cryptocurrency platforms undermining Naira at the foreign exchange market.
In the last few days, Naira continued to appreciate against the US dollar at the official and parallel exchange market. On Thursday, FMDQ data showed Naira was N1,595.11 per USD and N1,400 and N1,500 per USD at the parallel market.
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