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Coinbase Pushes Back on Reports It's Blocked in Nigeria
Multiple outlets have reported other platforms such as Kraken and Binance have also been blocked under government orders.
Updated Mar 8, 2024, 9:59 p.m. Published Feb 22, 2024, 5:10 p.m.
Exchange platform Coinbase remains accessible in Nigeria despite reports to the contrary, as renewed calls for a crypto ban in the country have intensified, a spokesperson for the exchange confirmed to CoinDesk on Thursday.
Multiple local outlets and the Financial Times have reported local telecommunications companies have been asked by the government to block several platforms, including Binance, Coinbase and Kraken – and that they have acted on it.
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"We are continuing to investigate these reports, but based on an initial investigation, it appears that Coinbase.com remains accessible from Nigeria," the spokesperson for Coinbase said in an email.
Nigeria's securities watchdog said in July that the Binance's activities in the country were illegal. Binance did not respond to a comment by press time, and Kraken declined to comment.
According to these reports, the request was fueled by the continued struggle of the official currency, the Nigerian naira. The naira has plummeted to record lows against the U.S. dollar in recent days, and the country suffered a devastating cash shortage ahead of national elections last year.
Crypto exchange platforms like Binance have been "blatantly setting exchange rate for Nigeria," hijacking the role of the country's central bank, said Bayo Onanuga, an advisor to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, in a Wednesday post on X.
Onanuga called for other firms – such as Kucoin and Bybit – should also "be banned from operating in our cyberspace."
This is not the first time Nigeria has come after crypto. Service providers were restricted from accessing banking services locally by the Central Bank of Nigeria – a move it recently overturned. The country has remained a strong adopter of cryptocurrency, particularly for remittances.
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Five Crypto Firms Win Initial Approvals as Trust Banks, Including Ripple, Circle, BitGo
The firms have obtained conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to convert into national trust banks.
Wat u moet weten:
- Crypto firms Circle, Ripple, Fidelity Digital Assets, BitGo and Paxos received conditional approval by the OCC to become federally chartered trust banks.
- The move sets up firms to follow in the footsteps of Anchorage Digital, the first to get a federal bank trust charter in the U.S.
- A slew of stablecoin issuers and crypto firms, including Coinbase, filed for federal oversight after GENIUS Act was written into law.
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