Olayemi Cardoso, the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has disclosed that $26 billion passed through Binance Nigeria in a single year, despite the bank’s incapacity to pinpoint the origins and users involved.
Cardoso underlined that the CBN has been working with other government authorities to address concerns about illicit and suspicious flows, and that it is their duty to protect Nigerian citizens.
He affirmed that the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and the Police continue to work together.
Cardoso’s remarks follow Nigeria’s request to telecom companies to limit access to cryptocurrency websites in an effort to curtail currency speculation.
In order to handle the changing landscape of cryptocurrencies and financial markets, Binance Nigeria has made it clear that its platform is not for currency pricing and that it is actively interacting with legislators, regulators and other stakeholders.
Peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transactions in Nigeria reached $56.7 billion between July 2022 and June 2023, making one of the world’s largest markets.
The CBN recently released guidelines to regulate the digital asset market, but industry observers predict that the recent actions taken against the country’s cryptocurrency operations would not, in the long term, stop the naira’s collapse.
Industry insiders think that in trying to address the naira problem, the government is concentrating on the wrong thing.
