One of the world's biggest cryptocurrency trading platforms, Binance, has reportedly announced its intentions to exit the Nigerian market and remove all assets associated with the Naira from March 8 amid a clampdown by Nigerian authorities on the platform.
Binance has been experiencing a crackdown on its operations in Nigeria, a West African nation. Hence, the company recently decided to cease all its Naira services. Last week, two Binance executives were detained by the National Security Adviser (NSA) upon their arrival in the country after authorities banned the company's website.
As part of this cessation of activities, Binance will discontinue deposits in Naira after March 5. Furthermore, customers' ability to withdraw funds in Naira will stop on March 8.
On its latest decision, Binance said, "Users are encouraged to withdraw NGN, trade their NGN assets, or convert NGN into crypto before 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."
Also, on March 7, Binance will delist all the existing NGN spot trading pairs. The move also affects Binance Pay, the company's payment solution service, by excluding Naira from the list of accepted payment methods.