Binance, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange platform, has made the decision to cease all services associated with the Nigerian naira. This move comes amidst allegations that Binance’s operations contributed to the depreciation of the Nigerian currency, the Naira. Additionally, the company is facing serious accusations of involvement in terrorism financing, money laundering, and tax evasion.
Nigeria stands as one of the largest peer-to-peer cryptocurrency markets globally, with transactions reaching $56.7 billion between July 2022 and June 2023, according to Chainalysis.
In response to these developments, Binance released a statement on Tuesday advising users to withdraw their NGN funds, trade their NGN assets, or convert NGN into cryptocurrencies.
The statement read, “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.
“Please note that the conversion rate is calculated based on the average closing price of the USDT/NGN trading pair on Binance Spot in the last seven days.
“The conversion may take approximately up to 24 hours or longer. USDT tokens will be credited to users’ Spot wallets thereafter, and users can confirm receipt of the tokens via the Convert History page.
“If users hold less than 0.00000001 USDT worth of NGN in their Spot and Funding wallets, they will each receive 0.00000001 USDT in their Spot wallets after the conversion.”
