February 16, 2025
Nigerian Government File Tax Evasion Suit Against Binance As Detained Exchange Official Escapes Custody

Binance, the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and digital assets exchange, has finally decided to halt all Nigerian Naira (NGN) services on its trading platform. 

In a statement released on Tuesday, the tier-one crypto exchange closed deposits of NGN, revealing the timeline for discontinuing NGN support across all its products, including Binance spot trading, Binance Convert, Binance Auto-Invest and Binance Pay. 

The NGN will be removed from the list of supported payment options on Binance Pay on March 6, 2024, at 03:00 (UTC). On the same day, Binance Auto-Invest will delist the currency. 

According to the announcement,  all existing NGN spot trading pairs, including BTC/NGN and USDT/NGN will be delisted on March 7. Also, the Nigerian Naira and all corresponding pairs will be delisted from Binance Convert at 02:00 (UTC) on March 7.

Nigerian Binance users are advised to withdraw their NGN funds, trade or convert their NGN assets into crypto before the intended discontinuation of all NGN-related services on March 8, 2024. 

Users who fail to do so will have their NGN assets in Spots and Funding wallets automatically converted to Tether USD (USDT) at a ratio of 1 USDT = 1,515.13 NGN as withdrawals of NGN will not be supported on Binance after March 8, 2024. 

Related: Binance Exits Russia, Sells Subsidiary to CommEX

Binance faces challenges in Nigeria

The planned development comes after the Nigerian government claimed Binance negatively impacted its Naira, which led to the delisting of all NGN trading pairs from Binance P2P on February 28, 2024. 

Moreover, the CBN claimed over $26 billion in alleged illegal transactions have been channelled through the crypto exchange in the last one year. Accordingly, Binance was reportedly fined $10 billion by the Nigerian government over this alleged illicit activities in the country. 

Recall that the Nigerian Security Advisor (NSA) detained two Binance officials on February 28, 2024, after the government ordered telecommunications companies and internet service providers in the country to block access to digital assets trading platforms on February 22, 2024.  

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