Nigeria’s Central Bank Denies Call to Freeze Crypto Exchange Users’ Bank Accounts

In response to the news that "the Central Bank of Nigeria requires financial institutions to freeze the accounts of users related to Bybit, KuCoin, OKX and Binance exchanges", the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a statement on the X platform to clarify that the CBN official did not issue the notice, and the public should check the official website for the latest information to ensure that the news is reliable. According to Cointelegraph yesterday, a screenshot showed that the Central Bank of Nigeria requires all banks and financial institutions to identify individuals or entities that trade with cryptocurrency exchanges and set these accounts to "prohibited debit" (PND) status within six months, which means that account holders will not be able to withdraw funds or make payments from the relevant accounts. According to the screenshot, the Central Bank of Nigeria lists cryptocurrency exchanges that have not obtained operating licenses in Nigeria, including Bybit, KuCoin, OKX and Binance. The Central Bank of Nigeria will investigate and punish illegal purchases and sales of stablecoins USDT on these platforms, especially those using peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions. In addition, the Central Bank of Nigeria pointed out that financial institutions are prohibited from engaging in cryptocurrency transactions or providing payment services for cryptocurrency exchanges.