Binance Suspends All Nigerian Naira (NGN) Services Due to Regulatory Obstacles

Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume, has made the decision to discontinue all services involving the Nigerian Naira (NGN) due to a regulatory crackdown and the currency’s declining value.

In a blog post published on Tuesday, Binance announced that starting from March 5 at 14:00 (UTC), it will no longer support NGN deposits. Furthermore, withdrawals of NGN will not be possible after March 8 at 6:00 (UTC).

Binance encouraged users to withdraw their NGN funds, trade their NGN assets, or convert NGN into cryptocurrencies before the discontinuation of these services.

Additionally, the exchange stated that any remaining NGN balances in users’ spots and funding wallets will be automatically converted into USDT at a rate of 1 USDT to 1,515.13 NGN, starting from 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 announced 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 automatically closed 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, according to Binance.

Furthermore, on March 6 at 3:00 (UTC), Binance will remove NGN from the list of supported payment options on “Binance Pay.”

Prior to this decision, Binance had already delisted all NGN trading pairs on its peer-to-peer (P2P) platform on February 28.

Binance’s discontinuation of NGN services is a response to the increased regulatory uncertainty it has faced in Nigeria. The Nigerian government accused the exchange of harboring individuals who manipulated USD/NGN prices on its website, resulting in the devaluation of NGN over the past year.

As a result of this regulatory scrutiny, two Binance executives were detained by authorities, and there were reports of a $10 billion fine being imposed on the exchange. However, Binance denied these rumors but acknowledged ongoing discussions with regulators in Nigeria to address the issue.

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Binance
Nigeria
Regulation