Cryptocurrency giant Binance has said it will discontinue all its naira services, days after two of its officials were detained in Nigeria.

The world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange has already told its Nigerian users to either withdraw their naira deposits, trade their assets denominated in the currency or convert their naira holdings into crypto before the discontinuation comes into effect on Friday.

“From 2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC), any remaining NGN balances in users’ Binance accounts will be automatically converted to USDT,” Binance said in a statement posted on its website on Tuesday.

The federal government blocked access to the platform in February, noting that the platform was used to funnel illicit funds to terrorists.

Bayo Onanuga, a spokesman for President Bola Tinubu said Binance could wreck the Nigerian economy if not tamed.

The governor of the Central Bank OF Nigeria, Yemi Cardoso has said that Binance operations in Nigeria have been used to funnel “illicit” funds.

Cardoso also said that $26 billion flowed through Binance Nigeria in one year from unverifiable sources.

The crypto exchange said it will no longer support deposits of naira after “2024-03-05 14:00 (UTC) while the withdrawals of NGN will not be supported after 2024-03-08 06:00 (UTC).”

Binance further said that after March 8 08:00 (UTC), it will convert any remaining NGN balances in users’ Spot and Funding wallets into USDT on behalf of users at a ratio of 1 USDT = 1,515.13 NGN.

It urged users to note that the conversion rate is calculated based on the average closing price of the USDT/NGN trading pair on Binance Spot in the last seven days.

According to the statement, the conversion may take approximately up to 24 hours or longer because USDT tokens will be credited to users’ Spot wallets thereafter, and users can confirm receipt of the tokens via the Convert History page.

It added that if users hold less than 0.00000001 USDT worth of NGN in their Spot and Funding wallets, they will each receive 0.00000001 USDT in their Spot wallets after the conversion.

Binance also announced that it will delist all existing NGN spot trading pairs (i.e., BTC/NGN and USDT/NGN) at 2024-03-07 (March 7) 03:00 (UTC).

It further warned users that all open spot orders with respect to the above trading pairs will automatically be closed when trading ceases in the relevant trading pair.

Binance also called on users to ensure that they have not selected “Hide Small Balances” in all of their wallets to view their assets after trading ceases.

Also according to the statement, Binance Convert will delist NGN and all corresponding pairs at 2024-03-07 02:00 (UTC). Binance P2P had already delisted all NGN trading pairs at 2024-02-28 15:00 (UTC).

Binance Auto-Invest will delist NGN after 2024-03-06 (March 6) 03:00 (UTC). Binance said users may choose to remove the plan(s) beforehand otherwise, the next recurring cycle of the aforementioned token(s) will fail.

Binance further announced that it will remove NGN from the list of supported payment options on Binance Pay at 2024-03-06 03:00 (UTC).

“We thank you for your support as we continue to build the crypto ecosystem in a way that promotes transparency and long-term, sustainable growth,” the Binance Team added.

The Guardian