Crypto trading platform,  Binance, has advised Nigerians trading on its exchange to withdraw all their NGN assets as it discontinues services in the country.

This comes amidst ongoing rancour with the Nigerian government over Binance operations in the country.

The crypto platform is being accused of manipulating the country’s currency leading to its steady fall against other currencies. Some of its executives are also currently being detained by the Nigerian government.

The company said it would no longer accept Naira deposits from today, March 5, adding that Nigerians now have until March 8 to withdraw their assets. Binance said any asset not withdrawn by that date would be converted to USDT.

What Binance is saying

Although the Nigerian government blocked access to the Binance website weeks ago, the company in a statement released on Tuesday and published on its website, said:

• Fellow Binancians, Binance will discontinue all Nigerian Naira (NGN) services as per the timeline below.
• “Users are encouraged to withdraw NGN, trade their NGN assets or convert NGN into crypto before the discontinuation of these NGN services. 
• “From 2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC), any remaining NGN balances in users’ Binance accounts will be automatically converted to USDT based on the conversion rate below.
• “Binance will not support deposits of NGN after 2024-03-05 14:00 (UTC). 
• “Withdrawals of NGN will not be supported after 2024-03-08 06:00 (UTC).
• “After 2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC), Binance will convert any remaining NGN balances in users’ Spot and Funding wallets into USDT on behalf of users at a ratio of 1 USDT = 1,515.13 NGN. 
• “Please note that the conversion rate is calculated based on the average closing price of the USDT/NGN trading pair on Binance Spot in the last seven days. 
• “The conversion may take approximately up to 24 hours or longer. USDT tokens will be credited to users’ Spot wallets thereafter, and users can confirm receipt of the tokens via the Convert History page. 
• “If users hold less than 0.00000001 USDT worth of NGN in their Spot and Funding wallets, they will each receive 0.00000001 USDT in their Spot wallets after the conversion.”

Other actions

Binance said it would delist all existing NGN spot trading pairs (i.e., BTC/NGN and USDT/NGN) at 2024-03-07 03:00 (UTC).

All open spot orders concerning the above trading pairs will automatically be closed when trading ceases in the relevant trading pair.

• “Users should ensure they have not selected “Hide Small Balances” in all of their wallets to view their assets after trading ceases,” it added.

The company it would also convert will delist NGN and all corresponding pairs at 2024-03-07 02:00 (UTC), while Binance P2P delisted all NGN trading pairs at 2024-02-28 15:00 (UTC).

• Binance Auto-Invest will delist NGN after 2024-03-06 03:00 (UTC). Users may choose to remove the plan(s) beforehand. Otherwise, the next recurring cycle of the aforementioned token(s) will fail,” it added.

Binance said it would remove NGN from the list of supported payment options on Binance Pay at 2024-03-06 03:00 (UTC).