By Valentine Amanze, Online Editor
Binance has temporarily suspended deposits in Nigerian currency – naira.
This is in response to Nigeria’s Central Bank’s (CBN) order to local banks on Friday to identify and close all accounts tied to cryptocurrency platforms or operations.
In a statement, Binance announced its Nigerian naira payment partners suspended deposit services until further notice, starting from 7 p.m. local time (GMT+1) as of Friday, adding that it was monitoring the situation closely.
“Withdrawal services remain normal and will continue to be processed but might take slightly longer time than usual,” the statement said.
The CBN letter reminded told local banks that dealing in cryptocurrencies or facilitating payments for cryptocurrency exchanges was prohibited under a 2017 circular stating bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies were not legal tender in the country.
While the move might impact fiat on- and off-ramps, most of the nation’s crypto trading occurs on peer-to-peer platforms and remains unaffected, according to finance experts in Nigeria.
The CBN directive came just months after protesters in Nigeria used bitcoin to raise funds after authorities reportedly shuttered bank accounts associated with the movement.
Since the letter started making rounds on the internet, Nigerian crypto users tweeted the hashtag #WeWantOurCryptoBack over 26,000 times, according to data obtained from SproutSocial.
But professionals in the crypto space do not believe the panic will last, or it will have any impact on crypto adoption.
Nigeria-based software and blockchain engineer, Tosin Olugbenga, told CoinDesk that the CBN might have issued the directive because of the bitcoin price run of 2020 and growing interest in cryptocurrencies worldwide is causing Nigerians to convert their earnings to crypto.
