According to Bloomberg, Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced plans to license providers of virtual assets including cryptocurrencies to tap opportunities and protect investors in the country.
What They’re Saying
The SEC wants “to provide a platform where people can formerly do these things and we are able to get all of the information that we need,” SEC Director-General Emomotimi Agama said in an interview.
“What we will not encourage is the use of cryptocurrency to manipulate our currency.”
Flashback
Nigerian authorities banned banks from supporting crypto transactions due to concerns that traders on digital-currency platforms are manipulating the exchange rate fo the naira, which has depreciated about 70% against the dollar since June last year.
The government in February blocked access to the world’s biggest crypto exchange operated by Binance Holdings Ltd. and later prosecuted its executives over allegations of illicit flows and speculation on the naira, which it said deprived the nation of tax revenue and weakened the local currency.
By The Numbers
The volume of crypto transactions in the country climbed 9% to $56.7 billion in June 2023 from a year earlier, Chainalysis said in a report.
Source: Bloomberg
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