ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA) – Despite the $4.3 billion settlement with U.S authorities, the Naira maintained its stability in the crypto market as it traded within the N1120- N1150 bandwidth against the dollar on Binance.
By trading volume, the world’s largest crypto exchange agreed to pay $4.3 billion to settle criminal charges that it had broken money-transmitting and sanctions laws, “one of the largest penalties” the U.S has gotten from a defendant.
Founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao entered a guilty plea in Seattle to charges that he personally faced. In exchange, he agreed to give up his position and pay a fine of $50 million.
The CEO position will be assumed by Richard Teng, a former regulator in Abu Dhabi who subsequently led Binance’s regional markets.
Binance, in a court filing that was made public on Tuesday, was charged with operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, failing to maintain an appropriate anti-money laundering program, and breaking sanctions laws.
The Nigeria’s Securities Exchange Commission has ordered Binance to stop operating in Africa’s largest economy but that has not deterred the country’s residents as Nigeria remains the Africa’s biggest cryptocurrency market in Africa where Binance dominates the peer-to-peer market.
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The CBN in 2021, forbade its banks and other financial organizations from engaging in crypto trading or assisting with transactions.
The Federal Government of Nigeria also, muddies the waters with ambiguous policy goals for the cryptocurrency sector. Former President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2023 Finance Act into law, bringing significant changes to the country’s revenue drive
One of the most significant changes is the introduction of a 10 per cent capital gains tax on profits made in the disposal of digital assets starting on 1 May, 2023, even though many global cryptocurrency exchanges used by residents are not registered in the country.
Digital exchanges are physically kept out of the nation’s borders thanks to the country’s Security and Exchange Commission’s clarification that digital assets include crypto assets where security tokens.
However, that has not dampened the interest in crypto assets in the world’s most populated black nation. Nigeria’s crypto transactions between July 2022 and June 2023, reached $56.7 billion.
Nigeria’s fondness for the crypto market has its roots in several important factors that have created an ideal environment, partly due to a combination of persistent economic issues such as a high rate of unemployment and bureaucratic processes in transferring funds via official channels
It was gathered that the general trend of the Nigerian people using less conventional transaction formats can also be attributed to inflation and limited access to more traditional forms of financing.
According to Chainalysis, following the sharp declines in the value of the local currency this year, the interest in bitcoin and stablecoins cryptocurrency tokens whose value is tethered to a stable asset to guard against wild volatility rose in Nigeria.