The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria, ABCON, has asked the Federal Government of Nigeria to ban the operations of Binance in Nigeria. The president of ABCON, Aminu Gwadabe, made this statement in an interview. According to Mr Gwadabe, the exchange is one of the many factors affecting the exchange rates in naira.
Recall that Nigeria’s Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) publicly stated that Binance, the renowned global cryptocurrency exchange, was neither registered nor regulated by the SEC, thereby rendering its operations in Nigeria unlawful. In a response contained in a blog post by the Binance official website, the company established it has issued a suspension notice to its fake Nigerian subsidiary while warning users not to trust any information associated with it.
Mr Gwadabe established that Binance’s trading is becoming the anchorage of both the investor’s and exporter’s window and the parallel market, which is unfortunate. For this reason, he stated that Binance operations in Nigeria need to meet its end.
“It’s a competition. We need to ban Binance and the only way to do so is if you have liquidity”, the ABCON president noted.
Consequently, he expressed that the most liquid market is Binance. Each second, the Cryptocurrency exchange initiates over 1.2 million transactions, and because of the local content and unique characteristics, it can succeed despite the market’s high level of liquidity.
He added that in the foreign exchange market environment, optimism is giving way to pessimism, leading to a loss of trust among citizens, and there is a shortage of investments in the foreign exchange market in Nigeria.
He also said that foreign exchange hoarding by banks and oil firms puts a lot of pressure on the naira. He noted that the incumbent government has demonstrated some changes in the economic sector, which have contributed to monitoring unlawful activities in the foreign exchange market.
Read More: Binance cuts employees’ benefits amid dwindling profits
Binance and its many troubles
Binance suspended withdrawals in the US following troubles with the regulatory bodies. In 2022, there were reports by Bloomberg that Nigerian authorities and Binance Holdings Ltd. were engaged in discussions to create a digital economic zone aimed at accelerating blockchain technology adoption in the West African country.
The cryptocurrency exchange could only keep talking to policymakers in the hopes that its investments in the country would not be in vain and that they would allow crypto usage again.
Weeks back, Binance cut employee benefits despite a turnaround in the cryptocurrency company’s fortunes. The company’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, maintains that the business is still profitable and unaffected by a current Securities and Exchange Commission case.
The crypto exchange encountered another regulatory hurdle in Europe, as it withdrew its application to register with the German banking regulator. This was after months of the crypto exchange seeking entry into the European country.
The exchange is also facing other challenges in Europe like how it was reportedly forced to leave the Netherlands because it did not meet the registration requirements to operate as a virtual asset service provider. The company is also under investigation in France.
The CryptoCurrency company also withdrew license applications in Austria, Netherlands, and Cyprus, and is also being investigated by French officials, who accused the cryptocurrency company of “acts of aggravated money laundering.”
In recent times, the company and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, have been under fire following a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing Binance of conducting a “web of deception.
Read More: Binance withdraws application for license approval in Germany
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