Binance announced in a blog post today that it will discontinue its Naira (NGN) service in response to increased regulatory oversight in Nigeria. The cryptocurrency exchange plans to begin delisting existing NGN spot trading pairs by Thursday, March 7th, and encourages users to withdraw, trade, or convert their NGN assets to cryptocurrencies before the end of service. There is. NGN balances remaining in users' Spot and Funding wallets will be converted to USDT on Friday, March 8, the company said.
By Wednesday, March 6th, Binance plans to delist the NGN service in its automated investment tool and remove the currency from the list of payment options supported by Binance Pay.
This development follows recent regulatory measures by the Nigerian government that imposed restrictions on domestic and international cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance. As a result, users are facing accessibility issues on Binance's website.
Last week, the country's apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria, said Nigeria was losing out on taxes from unregistered crypto exchanges, saying that Binance was “a major source of illicit funds from poorly identified sources and users”. He accused the country of promoting a $26 billion flow of money.
Subsequently, two Binance officials were reportedly detained after being invited to Nigeria to discuss regulatory restrictions. According to Bloomberg, Binance officials were detained because they were operating illegally in Nigeria. It is believed that the detained officials could be indicted on charges including currency manipulation, tax evasion and illegal operations, but no formal charges have been filed yet.
According to multiple reports, the Nigerian government has increased scrutiny of the platform, claiming that Binance is involved in manipulating foreign exchange rates through currency speculation and rate fixing, demanding nearly $10 billion in compensation. However, Nigeria and Binance refuted these claims regarding the fine.
The ongoing legal dispute between the world's largest crypto platform and Africa's largest crypto market is still unresolved. Recently, Nigeria's parliament escalated the situation by threatening to issue arrest warrants for the company's executives. In addition, local sources reported that they summoned Binance CEO Richard Teng to explain the investigation into its alleged involvement in money laundering and terrorist financing.