Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume, has decided to discontinue all services involving the Nigerian Naira (NGN) due to regulatory pressure stemming from the currency’s significant decline.
In a blog post published on Tuesday, Binance announced that as of March 5 at 14:00 (UTC), it will no longer support NGN deposits. Furthermore, withdrawals of the currency will no longer be facilitated after March 8 at 6:00 (UTC).
Binance advised users to withdraw their NGN, trade their NGN assets, or convert them into cryptocurrencies before the discontinuation of NGN services.
Additionally, the exchange informed users that any remaining NGN balances in their spot and funding wallets will be automatically converted into USDT at a rate of 1 USDT to 1,515.13 NGN as of March 8 at 8:00 (UTC). This conversion rate is based on the average closing price of the USDT/NGN trading pair on Binance Spot over the past week.
Binance also revealed that all existing NGN spot trading pairs, including BTC/NGN and USDT/NGN, will be delisted on March 7 at 3:00 (UTC). Any open spot orders related to these trading pairs will be closed automatically when trading ceases.
For users who hold less than 0.00000001 USDT worth of NGN in their spot and funding wallets, they will receive 0.00000001 USDT in their spot wallets after the conversion.
Moreover, Binance will remove NGN as a supported payment option on “Binance Pay” as of March 6 at 3:00 (UTC).
Earlier, on February 28, Binance had already delisted all NGN trading pairs on its peer-to-peer (P2P) platform.
Binance’s decision to discontinue NGN services comes amidst mounting regulatory uncertainty faced by the exchange in Nigeria. The Nigerian government accused Binance of housing individuals responsible for manipulating USD/NGN prices on its website, which they believe has contributed to the significant decline of NGN over the past year.
In response to these regulatory concerns, Nigerian authorities detained two Binance executives and reportedly demanded a $10 billion fine from the exchange. Binance, however, refuted rumors of the $10 billion fine but acknowledged that it was engaging in discussions with regulators in Nigeria to address the issue.
Tags:
Binance
Nigeria
Regulation
