Binance Operations Declared Illegal By SEC, Nigeria’s Market Regulator

Nigeria’s markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC has ordered the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, Binance to halt its operations in the country after allegations emerged that a local unit that courted Nigerian investors through a website was illegal.

This development comes after the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Binance and Coinbase for allegedly breaching its rules.

“Binance Nigeria Limited is hereby directed to immediately stop soliciting Nigerian investors in any form whatsoever,” SEC, said in a statement dated June 9. It said the company was not registered or regulated, making it illegal.

Binance could not be immediately reached for comment.

Last year, Nigeria’s SEC published a set of regulations for digital assets, signalling Africa’s most populous country was trying to find a middle ground between an outright ban on crypto assets and their unregulated use.

That was after Nigeria’s central bank in 2021 banned banks and financial institutions from dealing in or facilitating transactions in digital currencies.

Nigeria’s young, tech-savvy population has eagerly adopted cryptocurrencies, for example using peer-to-peer trading offered by crypto exchanges to avoid the financial sector ban.