The central bank has remained staunchly against any foreign currency in a bid to let the Naira remain afloat. The central bank’s latest victim has become the Bitcoin as the bank claims regulation is needed in order to prevent money laundering via Bitcoin. Many currencies have had to be regulated by the central bank including the dollar and other forms of foreign exchange. Recent the central national bank has provided its support for the regulation of cryptocurrencies and in the meanwhile many of your favourite exchanges may get hit.
As you are aware, the virtual currency market is an unregulated market in Nigeria and based on recent communications with the CBN and our risk appetite as a Bank, we have decided to cease dealings with dealers in virtual currencies until such a time when the market becomes regulated.
As seen above banks too are pulling out of business with many crypto related exchanges’ including NairaEX, as regulators remain unsure whether the central national bank will press ahead with regulation. Whilst some exchanges will feel the squeeze many should be able to operate without much problems as services are hoped to run as normal. Other reasons behind the proposed regulation included the fact that Bitcoin and other currencies are controlled by their respective developers rather than the banks themselves, this reduced level of control over the currency has led to the bank wanting regulation.
To conclude as you can see some of your favourite exchanges will be affected as their accounts will essentially be terminated. Citing terrorism too as one of the reasons, the CNB have called for increased regulation and while negotiations do occur, many banks have withdrawn support for accounts linked to exchanges as seen above due to the grey area currently surrounding Bitcoin use and crypto regulation in Nigeria.
