Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has declared Binance to be operating illegally in the country. According to the Nigerian regulator, Binance Nigeria Limited is neither registered nor regulated. As a result, the Nigerian SEC is calling on Binance to cease its activities in the country. This call comes at a time when Binance and other exchanges are under pressure from state regulators in the United States.
Binance also threatened in Nigeria
Regulatory pressure on the exchange Binance is far from over. While Binance faces legal proceedings in the USA, exchange is under serious threat in Nigeria.
Indeed, in a circular note published last Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria has announced that Binance’s Nigerian branch is not registered and regulated in the country. The Nigerian regulator therefore considers the activities carried out by Binance Nigeria Limited to be illegal.
Binance Nigeria Limited is neither registered nor regulated by the Commission and its operations in Nigeria are therefore illegal.
SEC Nigeria
Faced with about Binance Nigeria Limited the Nigerian SEC has announced two key measures to protect investors. In particular, the state regulator is inviting Binance to cease operations in Nigeria. In addition, the Nigerian SEC strongly discourages Nigerians from using unregistered platforms to invest in crypto.
The Nigerian SEC doesn’t intend to stop at just the exchange Binance. The Nigerian financial watchdog says it wants to join forces with other state regulators to provide updates on regulatory measures concerning other similar platforms
The war on exchanges extends beyond the USA
The call for Binance s decision to cease operations in Nigeria comes at a time when crypto exchanges are under serious threat from state regulators in the USA. Binance, Coinbase, Kucoin, Kraken…, all exchanges offering crypto services in the United States are being sued by the SEC. Some of them, such as Beaxy and Bittrex were forced to withdraw from the US market.
In the opinion of the US financial watchdog, exchanges are violating securities law by facilitating access to certain crypto that are securities. On the market, cryptocurrencies considered as securities by the SEC are experiencing significant falls. MATIC, ADA and SAND, to name but a few, lost almost 20% of their value over the weekend.
Regulatory uncertainty in the USA is already shaking the crypto market to its core. The fact that Nigeria, a high adoption of crypto joining this wave will certainly not help the situation. We hope that the crypto industry will come through this crisis and emerge stronger than ever.
I dream of a world where every citizen has total control over themselves, including their finances. I believe that Bitcoin is one of the tools that will achieve this revolution. Since 2019, I am learning about this cryptocurrency and spreading the word around.
