Crypto trading platform, Binance, has issued a further clarification to its earlier statement where it announced the discontinuation of NGN services in Nigeria.
The company said while it discontinues trading in the Nigerian currency, its customers can “continue to make use of other Binance services and products for other available cryptocurrencies.”
While Binance did not state specifically that it is closing its operations in Nigeria, the company said it would discontinue all NGN-related services.
However, a follow-up to the statement posted on its X handle assured Nigerians that they could still trade other products.
In its earlier statement, the company declared that it would no longer accept Naira deposits from today, March 5, adding that Nigerians now have until March 8 to withdraw their NGN assets.
According to the company, any asset not withdrawn by that date would be converted to USDT.
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Binance’s full statement
In the statement released on Tuesday, Binance highlighted the services it will discontinue in Nigeria. The statement read:
“Fellow Binancians,
“Binance will discontinue all Nigerian Naira (NGN) services as per the timeline below.
“Users are encouraged to withdraw NGN, trade their NGN assets or convert NGN into crypto prior to 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 below.
Deposits, Withdrawals and Conversions
“Binance will not support deposits of NGN after 2024-03-05 14:00 (UTC).
“Withdrawals of NGN will not be supported after 2024-03-08 06:00 (UTC).
“After 2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC), Binance will convert any remaining NGN balances in users’ Spot and Funding wallets into USDT on behalf of users at a ratio of 1 USDT = 1,515.13 NGN.
“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.
“The conversion may take approximately up to 24 hours or longer. USDT tokens will be credited to users’ Spot wallets thereafter, and users can confirm receipt of the tokens via the Convert History page.
“If users hold less than 0.00000001 USDT worth of NGN in their Spot and Funding wallets, they will each receive 0.00000001 USDT in their Spot wallets after the conversion.
Spot
“Binance will delist all existing NGN spot trading pairs (i.e., BTC/NGN and USDT/NGN) at 2024-03-07 03:00 (UTC).
“All open spot orders with respect to the above trading pairs will automatically be closed when trading ceases in the relevant trading pair.
“Users should ensure they have not selected “Hide Small Balances” in all of their wallets to view their assets after trading ceases.
Convert
“Binance Convert will delist NGN and all corresponding pairs at 2024-03-07 02:00 (UTC).
Binance P2P
“Binance P2P delisted all NGN trading pairs at 2024-02-28 15:00 (UTC).
Auto Invest
“Binance Auto-Invest will delist NGN after 2024-03-06 03:00 (UTC). Users may choose to remove the plan(s) beforehand. Otherwise, the next recurring cycle of the aforementioned token(s) will fail.
Binance Pay
“Binance will remove NGN from the list of supported payment options on Binance Pay at 2024-03-06 03:00 (UTC).”
What you should know
Binance’s decision to discontinue these services in Nigeria follows recent developments in Nigeria as the government is accusing the company of contributing to the nation’s forex crises.
Two top executives of Binance, were last Wednesday detained in Nigeria over alleged manipulations in foreign exchange trading and speculative activities.
The executives visited Nigeria in response to the country’s recent crackdown on various cryptocurrency trading platforms.
During their stay, they were apprehended by the Office of the National Security Adviser, and their passports were confiscated. The Binance officials are yet to be released as of the time of filing this report.
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Those executives should be apprehended, carefully investigated in order to identify the Nigerians who collaborated with them and possibly prosecute them if possible.