Nigeria has Blocked Access to Some of the World’s Largest Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Image of various cryptocurrency coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum on a laptop, highlighting digital currency trading and blockchain technology.
This week, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms regulator, ordered telecoms companies to restrict consumer access to the websites of companies like Binance, Coinbase and Kraken. On Thursday consumers had only intermittent access to some sites. The controls mark a U-turn on cryptocurrencies in Nigeria, which President Bola Tinubu’s government had seen as part of its sweeping market-friendly reforms, designed to attract overseas investment to its struggling economy. The reforms included a drive to regulate digital assets, where tokens like bitcoin and tether are seen by some as a rival to traditional assets. The government also reversed a ban on crypto transactions, in place to tighten up money laundering and terrorism financing standards. But the government is also trying to tidy up its messy system of multiple exchange rates and end its years long currency peg.