Nigerian Market Regulators Order Binance, To Stop Operations In The Country

JAKARTA - Nigeria's market regulator has ordered the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, to stop its operations in the country. They argued that the local crypto exchange unit attracted Nigerian investors through illegal websites.

"The Director of Binance Nigeria Limited is instructed to immediately stop filing Nigerian investors in any form," the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on June 9. The SEC states that the company is not registered or regulated, so it is considered illegal.

Binance could not immediately be reached for comment from Reuters.

Last week, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission also sued Binance and Coinbase over alleged violations of its regulations.

Last year, the Nigerian SEC issued a number of regulations for digital assets, suggesting that the country with the largest population in Africa is trying to find a middle ground between a total ban on crypto assets and unregulated use.

This happened after Nigeria's central bank in 2021 banned banks and financial institutions from conducting transactions or facilitating transactions with digital currencies.

Young Nigerians who understand technology enthusiastically adopt cryptocurrencies, for example by using peer-to-peer trading offered by crypto exchanges to avoid a ban on the financial sector.