The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, on Sunday, declared Nigeria’s subsidiary of the global cryptocurrency exchange platform as a scam.
Zhao made the declaration on his official Twitter handle.
According to him, “Binance Nigeria Limited a scam entity.”
The Binance boss wrote, “Binance has issued cease & desist notice to the scammer entity “Binance Nigeria Limited”. Don’t believe everything you read in the news,” he wrote.
Binance have issued cease & desist notice to the scammer entity "Binance Nigeria Limited".
Don't believe everything you read in the news. 🤷♂️
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) June 18, 2023
This comes a few days ago after the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria declared Binance Nigeria is operating illegally in the country as it is not registered or regulated by the SEC.
This is according to a published circular on the commission’s website dated June 9, 2023.
It noted that anyone conducting business on the exchange is doing so at their own risk.
It said, “The attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the 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.
“Binance Nigeria Limited is neither registered nor regulated by the Commission and its operations in Nigeria are therefore illegal. Any member of the investing public dealing with the entity is doing so at his/her own risk.”
Also, Binance is currently facing a lawsuit in the United States after the US Securities and Exchange Commission recently filed charges against it.
Binance US said it was suspending US dollar deposits and withdrawals following the enforcement action taken by the US’s SEC.
Binance said, “In an effort to protect our customers and platform, today we are suspending USD deposits and notifying customers that our banking partners are preparing to pause fiat (USD) withdrawal channels as early as June 13, 2023. We encourage customers to take appropriate action with their USD.”
In other news, Kanyi Daily reported that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Sunday, denied that it has declared the immediate past Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle wanted.
The EFCC said this in a terse statement signed by its Head of Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren.