For the past few months, it has been seen that Nigeria has risen as a Bitcoin nation and it is having a very busy peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading market. Nevertheless, the recent move by Nigeria Central Bank shows a completely different story.
It has issued an open letter for all the banks across the nation to instantly close the accounts of anyone dealing in cryptocurrency. In accordance to the letter:
Binance Suspends Deposits After Orders From Nigeria Central Bank
After the Nigeria central bank has declared this order, Binance, the largest crypto exchange, has halted deposits in Nigerian naira. Binance has suspended these services until there is any further notice from the bank in this matter.
This order is just from banks and the users of peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplaces can easily buy and sell crypto through other means. Still, if this ban will remain in action then there might be a decrease in trading activities.
When it comes to the legal crypto status in the country, it seems quite complicated as the country is not having any kind of prohibition on cryptocurrencies.
Meantime, Nigeria’s SEC has mentioned that it will be treating all the cryptocurrencies as securities until they are proven as assets. Now trading any unregistered asset will be considered illegal in the country.
Preventing Potential Securities Fraud
This move by Nigeria’s central bank seems to be based upon the above guidelines by Nigeria’s SEC. It is assumed that the bank might be trying to prevent potential securities fraud.
In the past couple of months, it has been seen that Bitcoin trading in Nigeria is progressing rapidly as in the last week only, the total Bitcoin trading volume in the country was $6.5 million. Now this move by the central bank might affect Bitcoin trading as it will limit crypto traders from doing bank transactions.
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