Three weeks after Nigeria’s Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) met blockchain trade gamers and requested that they cease peer-to-peer buying and selling, the worldwide crypto alternate Kucoin has suspended all naira-based peer-to-peer buying and selling. 

“As a part of ongoing efforts to boost our providers, Kucoin will briefly droop all p2p Naira providers and Quick Purchase service through Naira card,” the corporate mentioned in a notification to customers. 

Whereas the worldwide crypto alternate Binance faces federal authorities prices, Kucoin has largely remained below the radar and it’ll hope to take care of the established order with its determination to halt p2p buying and selling.

For weeks, the workplace of Nigeria’s Safety Adviser has elevated scrutiny of p2p crypto buying and selling, mandating fintechs and banks to shut financial institution accounts linked to buying and selling and report mentioned accounts to the authorities. The Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee (EFCC) has additionally blocked hundreds of accounts for buying and selling crypto.

On Might 7, Emomotimi Agama, the SEC DG blamed the slide of the naira on cryptocurrency traders. “What may be very vital and which has caused this assembly is the considerations relating to crypto P2P merchants and their impact on the alternate price,” he mentioned at that occasion. 

Whereas the naira turned the best-performing foreign money in April, it has since reversed all these good points. On Might 14, the USD exchanged for ₦1520, a surprising drop and a reminder of the volatility that led to a ban on Binance in February 2024.

This week, a number of foreign money merchants in main cities informed TechCabal that the EFCC had resumed arrests of road merchants, in enforcement of the February ban.

Regardless of these excessive measures, there’s no respite in sight for the naira and it stays to be seen if authorities will observe by means of with a plan to ban p2p buying and selling and what type that ban might take.