Nigeria’s financial regulator has ordered Binance to halt
its services in the country saying the exchange was neither registered nor
regulated. In a circular issued on June 9, the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), Nigeria, termed the exchange’s operations in the West
African country as illegal.
“Binance Nigeria
Limited is hereby directed to immediately stop soliciting Nigerian investors in
any form whatsoever,” SEC, Nigeria directed. “Any member of the
investing public dealing with the entity is doing so at his or her own risk.”
Nigeria SEC’s circular came barely a week after Binance
was charged by the US
SEC alongside its CEO and Co-founder, Changpeng Zhao, for operating an illegal
trading platform, offering unregistered securities, and comingling customers’
funds. The US SEC also sought a court order to freeze the assets belonging to
Binance.US.
“As the regulator
with the statutory mandate of investor protection, the commission urges
Nigerians to be wary of investing in crypto assets, and crypto asset-related
financial products and services if the service provider or its platform is not
registered or regulated by the commission,” the circular added.
Although it remains to
be seen what action the Nigeria markets’ watchdog would take against Binance
Nigeria Limited, the commission has revealed that further regulatory
actions concerning the
activities of the exchange would be provided.
Nigeria Moves to Protect
Investors
Amid a rising crypto adoption in Africa’s most populous
country, SEC Nigeria is taking precautions to protect investors. The commission
said in a report published by Bloomberg in May that it was considering allowing
tokenized coin offerings backed by equity, debt, and property, but not crypto,
on licensed digital asset exchanges.
However, an attempt by
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to push for the adoption of a central
bank digital currency (e-Naira),
including the use of cash restrictions, was met with street protests in March.
CBN issued guidelines for the e-Naira in 2021 with the aim of making it a legal
tender if it succeeded.
Hong Kong Welcomes Coinbase
Meanwhile, Coinbase, another top exchange also
facing regulatory pressure in the US, has received an invite from Hong Kong’s
regulator to set up operations in the region, according to a post by Johnny Ng,
Hong Kong’s Legco member.
This is despite the exchange’s
lawsuit brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly
operating an illegal…
