The president of Nigeria’s advisor has demanded that Binance, KuCoin, and other trading platforms be banned in the nation.
The assistant to President Bola Tinubu on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, came to the X social media site to claim that the platforms were manipulating the Nigerian naira, the nation’s fiat currency and that this was causing the currency’s continuous slide in the foreign exchange market. This coincides with rumors that the administration is already thinking about outlawing something.
The presidential adviser accused Nigerians trading on the Binance site of being disloyal in a post titled “The Naira-Dollar Manipulators.” Onanuga urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to promptly shut down cryptocurrency exchange operations in the nation. He declared:
These platforms that are attempting to manipulate our national currency should be taken down to zero by the EFCC and the CBN,” If cryptocurrency is not outlawed in our nation, the depreciation of our currency will not stop.
According to Onanuga, Binance is being investigated by regulators in a number of nations and shouldn’t be allowed to set the value of the naira on its cryptocurrency exchange platform. On February 22, Binance clarified that their platform is “market-driven and not intended to be a proxy for currency pricing in Nigeria,” distancing itself from the Nigerian forex crisis.
Nigerian cryptocurrency users have reported having trouble accessing a variety of cryptocurrency exchange platforms, such as OctaFX, Binance, and others. On the evening of February 21, there were rumors that the government might outlaw cryptocurrency platforms.
In response, Binance sent out an email to its users stating that it was aware of the development and making it clear that the problem only affected the web platform, with the Binance app continuing to work. Users were reassured by the exchange that it is actively interacting with authorities to promote a transparent and open discussion about how to manage the nation’s changing cryptocurrency environment.
On its peer-to-peer (P2P) platform, Binance placed a cap on the price at which USDT tokens could be sold, preventing traders from selling USDT for more than 1,802 naira each. In contrast to the conjectures of the nearby cryptocurrency community, the exchange clarified that the price peg resulted from an automated system halt.
Nigeria has emerged as the world’s largest peer-to-peer market following the CBN’s 2021 prohibition on institutions purchasing and selling cryptocurrencies. However, the prohibition on Nigerian banks supporting cryptocurrency transactions was repealed in December 2023 by a circular given to banks.
