As a result of Binance’s departure, other cryptocurrency exchanges will emerge in Nigeria’s ecosystem, said local crypto stakeholder Nathaniel Luz.
Critics of the present prohibition on Binance naira businesses in Nigeria say it would hurt many people’s ability to make a living and might lead to a spike in young unemployment.
According to local crypto players who spoke with Cointelegraph separately, new crypto exchanges will emerge to fill the void left by Binance’s departure from the market, all while finding a means to comply with local legislation, when Binance delists naira-related services.
Several Nigerian merchants now depend on P2P trading on Binance for their livelihood, according to Flincap CEO Nathaniel Luz, a liquidity platform for crypto exchanges. But for the time being, they’ve led to trade in groups on WhatsApp and Telegram.
Oladotun Wilfred Akangbe, chief marketing officer of Flincap, claims that many individuals may lose faith in the cryptocurrency sector due to the ongoing ambiguity around legislation in Nigeria and the move to take over Binance’s activities. In Nigeria’s cryptocurrency market, it has the potential to create widespread FUD.
The Binance cryptocurrency exchange said on its website that starting at 8:00 am UTC on March 8, it would automatically convert naira holdings to USDT. However, at 14:00 UTC today, the exchange will no longer accept NGN deposits.
The cryptocurrency firm has announced that their withdrawal service will be temporarily unavailable beginning March 8 at 6:00 am UTC. They have also announced that the automated conversion rate will be 1 USDT for 1,515.13 naira. At the end of February, Binance, a peer-to-peer platform, removed all NGN trading pairings from its site.
Citing “strange movements” of cash at Binance, the governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank (CBN) said on February 27 that Nigerian cryptocurrency exchanges were involved in illegal operations.
In light of growing concerns about Binance’s purported illegal activities in Nigeria, the Committee on Financial Crimes of the Nigerian House of Representatives summoned Binance CEO Richard Teng to appear before them no later than March 4.
Binance Nigeria’s activities in Nigeria were deemed unlawful in 2023 after the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission declared that the exchange was not registered nor authorized by them. The Nigerian central bank advised financial institutions to disregard its earlier prohibition on cryptocurrency transactions in December 2023, signaling a policy shift.
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