One of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges globally, Binance, has chosen to leave the Nigerian market. They’ve made it known that they’re stopping all services connected to Nigeria’s fiat currency, the naira.
Starting March 8 at 8:00 a.m. UTC, Binance will convert naira balances to USDT (Tether), a stablecoin tied to the US dollar. However, they will stop supporting naira deposits after 2:00 p.m. UTC today, and withdrawals will end after March 8 at 6:00 a.m. UTC.
Binance Ceases Naira Transactions Amid Regulatory Conflict
According to an official announcement, Binance has set the automatic conversion rate at 1 USDT per 1,515.13 naira. This means that starting March 8, naira balances will be converted to USDT, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar.
Additionally, Binance will delist all spot trading pairs involving the naira on March 7 at 3:00 a.m. UTC. Open spot orders for these pairs will be automatically closed.
Several Binance services, including Binance Convert, Binance P2P (Peer-to-Peer), Auto Invest, and Binance Pay, will no longer support naira transactions.
The decision to withdraw from the Nigerian market comes amid regulatory conflict with the country’s authorities. Last week, two Binance executives were detained by the office of the National Security Adviser in Nigeria. The company has been accused of contributing to the depreciation of the naira.
Binance Conversion Process and Impact on NGN
Binance has indicated that the conversion process may take up to 24 hours or longer. During this time, naira balances will be converted to USDT tokens at a rate of 1 USDT per 1,515.13 naira. Once the conversion is complete, the USDT tokens will be transferred to users’ Spot wallets. Users can verify the receipt of these tokens on the conversion history page.
In its final remarks, Binance mentioned that users whose spot wallets hold less than 0.00000001 USDT worth of NGN after the conversion will receive 0.00000001 USDT in their spot wallet.
Following Binance’s announcements, the NGN experienced a significant drop, falling from a level of 1,594 dollars to 1,523 dollars.
Important: Please note that this article is only meant to provide information and should not be taken as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other type of advice.
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