The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCCC) has been ordered by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to block access to all online resources offering digital asset purchase and exchange services, including national cryptocurrency exchange platforms Binance, Coinbase, Kraken and OctaFX.
This event comes just days after Binance introduced unilateral restrictions on peer-to-peer transactions in the USDT/NGN pair and coincided with the national currency naira's historic fall to record lows.
CBN Governor Yemi Cardoso said that cryptocurrency platforms, and especially Binance, have become extremely popular among citizens of the country due to their peer-to-peer features and the ability to trade digital assets directly without any control.
“Over the past few years, more than $26 billion of unaccounted funds from citizens of the country that we cannot identify have passed through Binance Nigeria alone,” the official announced.
Last week, Adviser to the President of Nigeria Bayo Onanuga announced the country's government's intention to introduce restrictions on citizens' access to crypto trading platforms.