Binance Faces Regulatory Hurdle in Nigeria: Ordered to Cease Operations
Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has been ordered to cease operations in Nigeria by the country's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
In a recent statement, the regulator declared the operations of Binance "illegal" in the West African nation, stating that the cryptocurrency exchange was neither registered nor regulated by the commission.
“Any member of the investing public dealing with the entity is doing so at his or her own risk,” the commission warned.
Nigeria's central bank had previously banned banks and financial institutions from facilitating transactions in digital currencies in 2021.
However, despite the ban, residents in Africa's most populous country still make up the largest volume of digital token transactions done on peer-to-peer trading platforms outside of the United States.
In the order, the Nigerian SEC warned investors that investing in crypto-assets is "extremely risky and may result in total loss of investment."
The regulator ordered Binance to stop soliciting investments from Nigerians and threatened to take further regulatory action against the platform and other similar exchanges operating in the country.
Last year, Nigeria's SEC published a set of regulations for digital assets, signalling the country's attempt to find a middle ground between an outright ban on crypto assets and their unregulated use.
The regulator had suggested permitting tokenized coin offerings on licensed digital exchanges that are backed by assets such as equity, debt, and property, but not crypto.
The new order from Nigeria's SEC comes days after the US SEC launched lawsuits against Binance, accusing the firm of illegally operating a securities exchange.
Earlier this week, the SEC
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