Nigeria, which has the highest rates of cryptocurrency ownership in the world has continued to grow despite the government ban. A majority of them have their portfolio registered in the world’s biggest crypto exchange Binance which has increasingly come under the prying eyes of regulators around the world.
As per a recent development, the trading platform announced that it restricted crypto accounts of registered Nigerian users in order to comply with anti-money laundering regulations and ensure the security of the platform for traders. In a statement published on its website, the crypto exchange stated,
“Protection mechanisms such as know your customer, anti-money laundering measures, collaboration with law enforcement, and account restrictions are in place to ensure our community remains protected.”
Drilling deeper as per the official announcement some 281 odd Nigerian accounts have been affected by this clampdown, with roughly 38% of these cases restricted at the request of international law enforcement, it said.
Following that many of its citizens trading on the Binance platform complained recently of the inability to initiate or complete transactions. This isn’t the first time where users dealing with digital assets have suffered account restrictions.
Nigeria crypto users- highest in Africa
Previously crypto users from the West African nation have faced trouble trading crypto assets since the Central Bank of Nigeria last year asked its financial institutions not to carry out any transaction business with cryptocurrency exchanges and ordered its digital currency traders to shut down accounts.
Nonetheless, Nigerians continue to use digital currencies as a hedge against inflation and naira depreciation, as well as to remit money. In fact, citizens in the African country hold the world’s highest proportion of such assets per capita, as per a survey conducted by German-based consumer data provider Statista.
With respect to the recent deactivation of Nigerian crypto accounts, Binance has so far resolved 79 of the account restriction cases and is in the process of formulating a plan to deploy more customer service personnel and expert risk agents to quicken the resolution process, the notice read.
In addition to that, it assured its customers that all non-law enforcement-related cases will be resolved within two weeks’ time.