The world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has halted its operations in Naira.
This came as a result of Nigeria’s government battle against naira deprecation, the decision came after authorities in Nigeria imposed restrictions on cryptocurrency exchanges.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, said at the end of last month that cryptocurrency exchanges were channels of money laundering and financial crimes, singling out Binance as the biggest threat.
“Certain practices go on that indicate illicit flows going through a number of these entities. In the case of Binance, in the last one year alone, $26 billion has passed through Binance Nigeria from sources and users who we cannot adequately identify.”he said.
Meanwhile, Changpeng Zhao, who was the CEO of Binance, has pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering laws in the United States.
Since the Nigeria government devalued the naira in May, the currency has fallen from about 410 to the dollar to around 1,600 naira on the official exchange.
A dollar was exchanged for as much as 1,900 naira on the black market in February.
Binance did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment on the allegations, but communicated through an email sent to its Nigerian users, stating that it was shutting down all its naira-based services on March 8.
Bayo Onanuga, a media adviser to President Tinubu, insists Binance was sabotaging the country’s economy by influencing exchange rates.
“That is why the government moved against Binance. Some people sit down using the cyberspace to dictate even our exchange rate, hijacking the role of the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria).” He said in February.
Onanuga did not respond to AFP’s request for comments.