Binance To Leave Nigerian Market, End Services in Naira

Binance is set to leave the Nigerian Market.

Newsone Nigeria reports that Binance will discontinue all services for Nigeria’s fiat currency, the naira, amid an ongoing regulatory conflict in the West African country.

This online news platform understands that Binance will automatically convert naira balances to USDT from March 8 at 8:00 a.m. UTC but will cease support for NGN deposits after 14:00 UTC today. Withdrawals will become unsupported after March 8 at 6:00 a.m. UTC.

In a post sighted on the Binance website on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, by Newsone Nigeria, the crypto exchange said the conversion rate for automatic conversions will be 1 USDT per 1,515.13 naira, according to an announcement.

All spot trading pairs against the naira will be delisted on March 7 at 3:00 a.m. UTC. Open spot orders for these pairs will be automatically closed.

Binance Convert, Binance P2P, the exchange’s Auto Invest feature, and Binance Pay will also cease support for the naira at various dates and times.

Meanwhile, this is coming after the Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Bola Tinubu slammed a $10 billion fine on crypto trading platform, Binance, over allegations of influencing the country’s forex crisis.

This online news platform understands that the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this Friday morning, March 1, 2024, in an interview with the BBC.

According to Onanuga, Binance profited substantially from its “illegal transactions” in Nigeria while the nation suffered huge losses.

The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy noted that Binance is not registered in Nigeria and has no presence in the country.

Onanuga alleged that people used the platform to arbitrarily fix dollar-naira rates; a practice he said negatively impacted the value of the local currency.

The Presidential Media Aide explained further that the Binance team was already cooperating with the Nigerian government by providing useful information, and had already suspended naira-related transactions on the platform.