Nigerian Central Bank Bans Bitcoin, Social Media Blasts Move

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Last Updated on 23 March 2021 by CryptoTips.eu

Jeroen Kok

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It was always clear that at a certain point, some central bankers in developing countries would try and ban Bitcoin altogether. This is because a decentralized currency cannot be controlled and the more trading and exchanging which would be done in crypto would mean that the authorities of such a nation would slowly lose control over what they crave most: the flow of money.

In a letter published on it’s website yesterday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) informed all banks that they needed to close accounts transacting with cryptocurrencies.

It reminded banks that:

Dealing in cryptocurrencies or facilitating payments for cryptocurrency exchanges is prohibited.

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Dethroning Dollar

It comes as Africa is slowly becoming the first continent in the world where crypto is finding an actual use as a medium of exchange. On this site, we have highlighted the fact that Nigeria was one of the leading users of Bitcoin for trade multiple times in the past year.

In fact, even the leading newspaper New York Times admitted in September already that in Nigeria, a country of 200 million inhabitants, Bitcoin was slowly dethroning the dollar in matters of trade. Rather than exchanging their own currency into dollars and then into the currency of their counterparty in Asia for example, Nigerian traders would simply use crypto.

Youth revolts

The younger Nigerians, who understand that this is simply a power grab by the government, are spewing their outrage over the measure on social media, where they are being supported by many of the known crypto advocates.

In the past day, Anthony Pompliano has already commented. It is to be expected that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who has been critical of the Nigerian regime in the past, will also do so. Given his closeness to the Nigerian youth, it can be expected that Daily Show host Trevor Noah will segment the story in this show next week as well.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao retweeted a comment by a customer of his platform. The man stated that the action of the central bank didn’t matter, as long as he could transfer crypto between platforms.

As long as I can make transfers to other crypto wallets and still trade, I am not withdrawing anything. This is already a failed attempt by the Nigeria government. My money feels safer in my Binance wallet than in Nigeria banks.

SARS Protests

The move by the Nigerian Central Bank seems to have two targets. Firstly to take back control of the trade in their own currency rather than crypto (Nigeria, together with Kenya and South Africa) was experiencing a crypto boom in trade since a year or so), and secondly, the stop the raising of funds by the SARS protesters.

hello.artmagination.com / Depositphotos.com