|
Listen now
|
Nigeria’s securities authority has reportedly deemed the operations of cryptocurrency exchange Binance illegal, just days after Binance was sued by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“Binance Nigeria Limited is hereby directed to immediately stop soliciting Nigerian investors in any form whatsoever,“ Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement.
The regulator also noted that Binance is neither registered nor regulated in the country, making its operations illegal. “Any member of the investing public dealing with the entity is doing so at his or her own risk,” said the commission.
The setback comes just days after Binance was sued by U.S. authorities.
On June 5, the SEC filed a lawsuit with 13 Charges against Binance including accusations of unregistered offers and sales of securities, failure to register as an exchange or broker, and commingling of funds.
The company said it provided all the information required by regulators and looks forward “to defending ourselves in court.”
Binance is a popular crypto exchange in Nigeria. It is one of the region’s most prominent crypto hubs and Africa’s most populous country.
A study by Chainalysis shows that the Middle East and North Africa region is leading crypto adoption worldwide, with users receiving $566 billion in cryptocurrencies between July 2021 and June 2022, a 48% increase from the previous year.
The ban follows recent regulatory developments within the local crypto ecosystem.
On May 28, former President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Finance Act into law, introducing a 10% tax on gain from digital assets.
The newly elected Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, has recently released a manifesto suggesting a revision of the Nigerian SEC’s regulations on digital assets to make them more business-friendly.
The Central Bank of Nigeria does not recognize cryptocurrencies as legal tender and commercial banks have been banned from engaging in crypto transactions in the country since February 2021.