For the first in a while, Naira appreciated massively at Binance, a cryptocurrency platform, amid reported access restrictions on Nigeria’s cyberspace.
While there is no official statement that Nigeria restricted access to Binance and other cryptocurrency platforms, the Special Adviser on Information & Strategy to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga, on Wednesday, called on the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Economic and Financial Crime Commission to move against crypto.
Several Nigerian users of Binance took to their X accounts to complain about being unable to access the platform on Wednesday.
Consequently, the Naira gained against the US Dollar on Wednesday at Binance, a P2P market.
Naira appreciated N1,608 per US dollar on Wednesday from N1,936 on Tuesday at Binance.
The gain represented a N333 or 17.2 per cent gain on Wednesday.
Earlier, Binance, in a statement responding to the situation of Naira at the FX market, pledged commitment to the Nigerian Government to tackle market manipulation.
To back its words with action, Binance disabled the sell option for its Nigerian users on Tuesday, blocking them from selling fiat currency, USDT, on the platform.
It also capped the buy option to $1802 for Nigerian users.
The platform disabled the purchase of cryptocurrencies via P2P for its Nigerian users, stopping those who might want to sell their crypto assets, such as Bitcoin, BNB, and Ethereum stocks, via P2P.
“To protect users and prevent any abuse, our system automatically pauses in the event of significant currency movement. Late last night, we observed a temporary suppression of prices that briefly reached our system limit. We quickly made the necessary adjustments to allow trading to continue.
“We have stringent measures in place to protect users in the market, including real-time monitoring, immediate removal of non-compliant advertisements, and permanent removal of bad actors from using our P2P product. Continuous market surveillance ensures the prompt removal of abnormal prices, supported by a fixed security deposit,” it said.
In the meantime, Naira appreciated for the second time this week to N1542.58 per US dollar on Wednesday, according to FMDQ data.
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