Nigeria’s markets regulator has ordered the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance to halt its operations in the country, saying a local unit that marketed to Nigerian investors through a website was unlicensed. was legal.

“Binance Nigeria Limited is hereby directed to immediately cease soliciting Nigerian investors in any form,” the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement on June 9. It said the company was not registered or regulated, making it illegal.

Binance could not immediately be reached for comment.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission this week sued Binance and Coinbase for allegedly violating its rules.

Last year, Nigeria’s SEC published a set of regulations for digital assets, signaling that Africa’s most populous country is trying to find a middle ground between an outright ban on crypto-assets and their unregulated use. trying to

This was after the Central Bank of Nigeria banned banks and financial institutions from conducting or facilitating transactions in digital currencies in 2021.

Nigeria’s young, tech-savvy population has eagerly adopted cryptocurrencies, for example using peer-to-peer trading offered by crypto exchanges to avoid financial sector restrictions.