Forex Crisis: Binance Ends Services In Naira And Intends To Leave The Nigerian Market

Binance intends to exit the Nigerian market and discontinue its Naira services.

The Federal Government's increased scrutiny has led Binance to decide to stop offering any services related to Nigeria's fiat currency, the naira.

According to the cryptocurrency exchange, automatically, starting at 8:00 a.m. UTC on March 8, naira balances will be converted to USDT. However, after 14:00 UTC today, March 5, NGN deposits will no longer be supported, and withdrawals will no longer be possible after 6:00 a.m. UTC on March 8.

The conversion rate for automatic conversions will be 1 USDT per 1,515.13 naira, according to a post made by Binance on its website on Tuesday.

“Users are encouraged to withdraw NGN, trade their NGN assets or convert NGN into crypto prior to the discontinuation of these NGN services,” according to the post.

The delisting of all spot trading pairs against the naira is scheduled for March 7 at 3:00 a.m. UTC. You will automatically close open spot orders for these pairs.

The naira will no longer be supported by Binance Convert, Binance P2P, the exchange's Auto Invest function, and Binance Pay at different times.

Recall that the exchange, which is not permitted to operate in Nigeria, has been the subject of an investigation by regulators there.

Richard Teng, the CEO of Binance, has been called before the House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Crimes to testify by March 4th regarding the investigations into purported money laundering and financing of terrorism.