Nigeria releases new guidelines for crypto companies to prohibit illicit actors
The securities regulatory body of Nigeria released a set of new guidelines for crypto companies to fight against the bad actors involved in crypto-related activities.
Nigeria is not a fair place for crypto adoption, as the government agencies in this country are not definite with any crypto ban or adoption plan. Since 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been playing crypto-ban games. In Dec 2023, the CBN announced crypto transactions legal but maintained crypto banking ban measures.
Also, other regulatory bodies imposed recently imposed restrictions on the access of top major crypto platforms e.g. Binance, Coinbase, Trust Wallet, etc.
On 7 March 2024, new guidelines were released by the Nigerian Securities Body (SEC) for the crypto companies providing crypto services in the country.
New guidelines are a set of rules for the crypto exchanges to follow, to prohibit the bad actors from using cryptocurrencies.
In short, the Nigerian SEC body will license, register, and inspect virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in the country to fight against the misuse of cryptocurrencies.
Alternatively, we can say that Nigeria is moving toward Crypto regulation with this step.
Nigeria Crypto Crackdown vs Binance
The last few weeks in Nigeria were very bad for the crypto companies in this country because some crypto companies faced regulatory action & the services were restricted digitally.
As there are no laws in the country, so all the exchanges were operating without any legal authority or licence. Nigerian enforcement agencies arrested two Binance executives for operating the crypto services while failing to pay taxes.
Reportedly the Nigerian government agencies demanded a $10 billion fine from the Binance exchange to restart services & leave the executives but later the Binance team clarified that they were not aware of such a fine by the Nigerian government. Later reports dismissed the $10 billion fine theory.
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