Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reiterated its warning against Binance, the largest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume, highlighting the platform has been “soliciting Nigerian public to trade crypto assets.”
The latest announcement last Friday came after the Nigerian financial market regulator initially flagged Binance Nigeria Ltd on June 9, 2023. However, Binance then said that the flagged firm was not affiliated with it and even sent a cease-and-desist notice to it.
Binance have issued cease & desist notice to the scammer entity “Binance Nigeria Limited”.
Don’t believe everything you read in the news. 🤷♂️
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 18, 2023
In the recent warning, the Nigerian regulator specifically mentioned Binance’s website and said that it is in “furtherance of the Commission’s earlier circular.”
“The Commission again reiterates that the activities of Binance, https://www.binance.com, and any such other platform through which the Company solicits investors is neither registered nor regulated by the Commission, and its operations in Nigeria are therefore illegal. Any member of the investing public dealing with the entity, making such solicitation is doing so at his/her own risk,” the regulatory warning stated.
The Nigerian financial market regulator also extended the warning to include “all [crypto] platform providers” in the country and ordered them to “immediately stop soliciting Nigerian investors in any form whatsoever.” The regulator further warned against the high risks of crypto investments.
“As the regulator with the statutory mandate of investor protection, the Commission hereby warns the public that investing in crypto-assets have a high level of risk and may result in total loss of investments,” the regulator added. “The Commission, therefore, urges the investing public to be wary of investing in crypto-assets and other products offered or operated by entities not registered or regulated by the Commission.”
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