Nigeria had declared the leading exchange illegal in its country after the US regulator SEC’s case of Binance. New reports suggest that the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is actually targeting a different company that has no affiliation with CZ.
Nigeria targeted the wrong Binance
As you follow on Kriptokoin.com, on June 10, the Nigerian SEC declared Binance illegal in its country and ordered Nigerians to stop investing in the platform. The editor said in a statement on this date:
Binance Nigeria Limited is neither registered nor regulated by the Commission. Therefore, its activities in Nigeria are illegal. Any member of the investing public doing business with the entity does so at his own risk.
…Nigerian investors have been warned that investing in cryptocurrencies here is extremely risky and could result in a complete loss of investment.
An exchange not associated with CZ is banned
New reports show that the Nigerian regulator is actually targeting a different company, again called Binance. According to DL News’ report, Binance reported that it had no affiliation with the company in question shortly after the decision. The Nigerian SEC has targeted a different “arbitrage” platform using the name Binance.
Nigeria's regulator probably fell for a domain-squatting tactic when it shut down Binance Nigeria Limited, thinking it was the real @binancehttps://t.co/0ui6iQQiPH
— DL News (@DLNewsInfo) June 17, 2023
Binance.US loses market dominance after lawsuits
Following the latest developments, Binance.US’s market dominance in the US has shrunk to 1%. Meanwhile, US customers are expressing disappointment at the delays in withdrawing ACH from the exchange. A Binance.US email response shared on Twitter showed the exchange said the volume of demand it had to fulfill was causing the delays. According to the email, the exchange processed more than 85% of the 285,000 withdrawal requests it received.
Watching this withdrawal situation with @BinanceUS very carefully.
Noticed a LOT of delayed ACH transfer comments within the same range as mine on their last major post last night, now received this email this AM.
Is your #BinanceUS transfer delayed? pic.twitter.com/ALTLrDQJsU
— futuretomorrow.crypto (@FutureTomorrow_) June 15, 2023
Binance also stated that the decision of banking partners to restrict access to their accounts before the Court, which heard the SEC’s request for a freeze, further aggravated the situation. Meanwhile, Binance.US and the SEC have agreed that their clients’ assets will be under the sole control and management of the exchange’s staff.
However, according to Kaiko’s data, Binance.US’ dominance among US exchanges fell to 1% after the lawsuit, a significant drop from 20% recorded in April. At the time, CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao pointed out that the volume of the US subsidiary reached 41% of Coinbase.
https://twitter.com/KaikoData/status/1669647786290163712
There is setback on multiple fronts
In addition to Binance’s regulatory challenges in the US, the exchange is facing other challenges in various jurisdictions. It came out of two European markets last week, mainly the Netherlands and Cyprus. Now, he is facing an ongoing investigation in France.
To clarify:
In France, on-site visits by regulators and inspectors, are part of regulatory obligations to which all financial institutions must adhere.
We had an on-site visit last week by the relevant authorities. Binance, as always, was fully collaborative and we met our…
— Binance (@binance) June 16, 2023
Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market has rebounded slightly after 2 weeks of decline. Here is the market outlook for the last 24 hours:
- Bitcoin (BTC): 3.77%
- Ethereum (ETH): 4.34%
- BNB (BNB): 4.45%
- XRP (XRP): 3.17%
- Cardano (ADA): 4.02%
- Dogecoin (DOGE): 1.76%
- TRON (TRX): 2.50%
- Solana (LEFT): 7.93%
- Polygon (MATIC): 8.76%
- Litecoin (LTC): 3.12%
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