The cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that it will stop all services related to the Nigerian naira on March 8, 2024.
The announcement of the discontinuation of services in naira was made in a statement released by Binance on Tuesday.
News About Nigeria reports that the discontinuation of services in naira by Binance is coming after the Federal Government accused the company of exploiting the Nigerian currency, leading to its free fall in value and also allegedly detaining at least two senior executives of the cryptocurrency exchange company.
According to reports, the executives flew into Nigeria last week following a ban on their website and were arrested by officials of the Office of the National Security Adviser and their passports were seized.
The government had also, through the Nigerian Communications Commission, blocked the online platforms of Binance and other crypto firms to avert what it considers continuous manipulation of the forex market and illicit movement of funds.
In the statement, Binance advised users to withdraw NGN, and trade their NGN assets or convert NGN into crypto.
The crypto trading platform also noted that any balance remaining in naira on the platform on March 8 would be converted to USDT based on the conversion rate.
The statement partly reads, “Users are encouraged to withdraw NGN, trade their NGN assets or convert NGN into crypto prior to the discontinuation of these NGN services. From 2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC), any remaining NGN balances in users’ Binance accounts will be automatically converted to USDT based on the conversion rate below.
“Binance will not support deposits of NGN after 2024-03-05 14:00 (UTC). Withdrawals of NGN will not be supported after 2024-03-08 06:00 (UTC). After 2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC), Binance will convert any remaining NGN balances in users’ Spot and Funding wallets into USDT on behalf of users at a ratio of 1 USDT = 1,515.13 NGN.”
