The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has not prohibited local residents from buying and selling Bitcoin; the restrictions apply only to financial institutions. This was reported by Today NG.
A regulator’s representative, Adamu Lamtek, said that the CBN “has not discouraged people” from trading digital assets.
“All that we did,” he said, “was to ban cryptocurrency transactions in the banking sector.”
On February 5, the CBN ordered commercial financial institutions to close the accounts of companies that deal with digital assets. In the regulator’s view, this would help protect the local economy from risks.
The Nigerian Senate demanded that the central bank governor Godwin Emefiele explain the introduced restrictions.
On February 18, on the Quidax trading platform, the price of Bitcoin in the naira pair surpassed $76,000.
In March, Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo urged cautious adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
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