Nigeria’s securities watchdog ordered Binance Nigeria to halt all activities on the grounds that it was an unregistered entity, even as the global Binance digital asset exchange denies any link to the company.
In a notice, Nigeria’s SEC said Binance Nigeria was operating illegally.
“The attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission has been drawn to the website operated by Binance Nigeria Limited, soliciting the Nigerian public to trade crypto assets on its various web and mobile-enabled platforms,” the watchdog stated, as reported by local outlets.
“Binance Nigeria Limited is hereby directed to immediately stop soliciting Nigerian investors in any form whatsoever.”
The SEC also warned the public against investing with platforms that haven’t been duly registered by the commission and pledged to take further action against Binance Nigeria.
However, on Monday, Binance, the embattled global exchange led by Changpeng Zhao, denied any links to the Nigerian company.
“We are aware of the circular. However, the entity mentioned in the circular is not affiliated with us. We are therefore seeking clarity from the Nigerian SEC and remain committed to working with them cooperatively on the next steps,” a spokesperson for the company told news outlets.
However, the spokesperson reportedly admitted to the exchange registering Binance Nigeria “for arbitrage reasons when we thought Binance might want to set up operations in Nigeria. But that did not happen, and as you can see, it (Binance Nigeria Limited) is inactive.”
And while it looks likely to dodge regulatory actions in Nigeria, Binance is facing a lawsuit by the U.S. SEC over calculated evasion of U.S. securities laws. The SEC filed 13 charges against Binance.US and CZ, including allowing U.S. traders on the global platform Binance.com and manipulative trading. It’s important to note that CZ stands accused of the same crimes that brought down Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire, whose downfall CZ played a big part in.
Follow CoinGeek’s Crypto Crime Cartel series, which delves into the stream of groups—from BitMEX to Binance, Bitcoin.com, Blockstream, ShapeShift, Coinbase, Ripple,
Ethereum, FTX and Tether—who have co-opted the digital asset revolution and turned the industry into a minefield for naïve (and even experienced) players in the market.
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