Binance Stops Naira Transactions From March 8

Binance Nigeria, yesterday, announced plans to cease all services in naira, the country’s local currency, from March 8, 2024.

The cryptocurrency platform announced the decision on its website. According to Binance, naira withdrawals will be officially suspended after March 8.

The development comes amid the Federal Government’s clampdown on the crypto exchange over “regulatory breaches”.

The statement read: “From March 8, any remaining NGN balances in users’ Binance accounts will be automatically converted to the Tether stablecoin.

The exchange encouraged users to withdraw their naira funds, trade their naira assets or convert them to crypto before the discontinuation of these NGN services.

“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.

Binance also said it would immediately suspend naira deposits, as such, transactions will not be supported after 2:00 pm UTC on Tuesday, March 5 2024.

According to the company, all trading pairs involving naira are set to be removed from its platform on March 7, 2024.

The organisation said its payment service — Binance Pay — will also remove naira from the list of supported payment options on March 6, 2024, adding that its peer-to-peer platform delisted all NGN trading pairs in late February.

Binance is currently facing significant scrutiny by the Nigerian authorities over allegations of infractions in the country’s foreign exchange (FX) regulations.