Binance halts naira services amid regulatory concerns

Crypto exchange, Binance, has announced that it will discontinue services supporting naira on its platform starting Tuesday.

In a notice on its website on Tuesday, Binance, which had been accused of manipulating the value of the Nigerian currency, said that starting this Friday, any remaining naira balances in user accounts will be automatically converted to Tether, a cryptocurrency stablecoin pegged to the US dollar.

“Binance will not support deposits of NGN after 2024-03-05 14:00 (UTC). Withdrawals of NGN will not be supported after 2024-03-08 06:00 (UTC). After 2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC), Binance will convert any remaining NGN balances in users’ Spot and Funding wallets into USDT on behalf of users at a ratio of 1 USDT = 1,515.13 NGN,” part of the statement read.

Last week, the Federal Government demanded almost $10bn in compensation from Binance, for manipulating foreign exchange rates via currency speculation and rate fixing on its platform.

It was also reported that the FG arrested and confiscated the passports of two executives of the exchange who had travelled to Nigeria to resolve issues with the authorities.

Despite the stance of the government, Nigeria remains one of the world’s biggest crypto markets.

A Chainalysis report in September 2023 revealed that Nigeria’s crypto transaction volume grew by nine per cent year-on-year, reaching $56.7bn between July 2022 and June 2023.

The naira has been struggling against the American dollar for months following the harmonisation of segments of the currency market in June.