The world’s largest cryptocurrency company and exchange, Binance, has denied any ties with Binance Nigeria Limited after the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a circular stating Binance’s illegal operations in the country.
The Chief Executive Officer of Binance Changpeng Zhao (CZ) took to Twitter on Sunday, June 18, to announce that Binance Nigeria Limited is a scammed entity with no affiliation to the Binance platform. As per his tweet, the company has issued a cease and desist order to the entity to stop faking the Binance platform.
Binance have issued cease & desist notice to the scammer entity "Binance Nigeria Limited".
Don't believe everything you read in the news. 🤷♂️
— CZ 🔶 Binance (@cz_binance) June 18, 2023
The issue came to light when the Nigerian SEC issued a circular on June 9, stating the activities of an unregistered entity that called itself Binance Nigeria Limited. The circular read:
“Binance Nigeria Limited is neither registered nor regulated by the Commission and its operations in Nigeria are therefore illegal. Any member of the investing public dealing with the entity is doing so at his/her own risk.”
As reported, on June 5, the US SEC filed a lawsuit against Binance and CZ for the alleged violation of securities laws. The lawsuit levied 13 charges which include unregistered offers and sales of both BNB and BUSD tokens, along with Simple Earn and BNB Vault Products, and the exchange’s staking program.
Binance is currently engaged in a legal battle with the SEC with a long way to go. The company has vowed to give tough time to SEC in the courts. So to avoid other distractions, the crypto exchange giant has completely distanced itself from the Nigerian entity.
Binance Gets Some Relief
The Binance has put an end to this Nigerian issue after a day it got a respite in its duel with the securities regulator. In the latest development to the case, on Saturday, June 17, the court approved an agreement between Binance US, Binance, and the US SEC.
We want to provide an update on the current battle https://t.co/AZwoBOh0gq finds itself in with the SEC. We are pleased to inform you that the Court did not grant the SEC’s request for a TRO and freeze of assets on our platform which was clearly unjustified by both the facts and…
— Binance.US 🇺🇸 (@BinanceUS) June 17, 2023
The SEC filed an emergency motion on June 6 for a temporary restraining order on Binance US assets for the alleged direction of $12 billion in US customers’ funds to funds and entities controlled by CZ. With the approved agreement, the previous temporary restraining order (TRO) that aimed to freeze all Binance US assets has now been dismissed, allowing the exchange to operate as normal.
As per the agreement, only Binance US employees can have access to client funds, and customers can withdraw funds until the litigation is resolved.
Although Binance has managed to secure an important early relief, there is still a long way to this fight. Given the footprint of Binance in the crypto space, the outcome of this duel will be important for the future of crypto.
