Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is exiting Nigeria and disabling all its Naira services amid the company’s tussles with the Nigerian government.
The company in a statement on its app on Tuesday said it will stop naira deposits after March 5, while withdrawals will end on March 8.
The platform informed users that any remaining NGN balances will be automatically converted to Tether (USDT) stablecoin after March 8, DAILY GIST reports
It advised the users to withdraw, trade their NGN assets, or convert them into cryptocurrency before this deadline.
It said: “Any remaining NGN balances in users’ Binance accounts will be automatically converted to USDT,” the exchange said in a statement on Tuesday.
Binance will also delist all existing NGN spot trading pairs on March 7.
The naira will be removed from the list of supported payment options on Binance Pay, the exchange’s payment solution,”the platform added
Binance, an online trading platform where users deal in cryptocurrency was flagged by the Central Bank of Nigeria to have been involved in money laundering, and terrorist financing among others.
Binance was consequently banned in Nigeria to avert the continuous manipulation of the forex market and illicit movement of funds, DAILY GIST had reported
Apart from Binance, other platforms such as Forextime, OctaFX, Crypto, FXTM, Coinbase, Kraken, among others, were equally blocked.
The federal government decided to move against Binance and other crypto firms following reports that currency speculators and money launderers were using them to execute criminal activities.
Authorities believe the ‘criminal activities’ going on the platforms are contributing significantly to the weakening of the naira.
