Bitcoin Forum

https://i.imgur.com/8WEFa8X.png

Oh....This Nigeria https://i.imgur.com/MoIaoN7.jpg
, you want to bring yourself into retrogression
Nigeria, you don't want to join the crypto progressives (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5316795.msg56332370#msg56332370) ???

You have left your business of human development but create confusion
https://i.imgur.com/xI214fV.jpg
in the minds of your subjects.

Nigeria, with Shenanigans in government
The youth only left with promises, told of being the leaders of tomorrow. All
promises (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.techawkng.com/2020/09/28/federal-government-launches-digital-nigeria-portal-and-mobile-app/amp/) in valley rift.

Nigeria, you keep cutting off the promises of tomorrow
You shut the youth off from cryptocurrency (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5316632.msg56327476#msg56327476), the tomorrow we know

Nigeria, with the second position in the bitcoin market (https://www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/africa/1947769/nigeria-is-the-second-largest-bitcoin-market-after-the-us/amp/)

But you never care for tomorrow
Institutional investors are looking into different crannies to invest but you shutting your windows

The blues of the Nigerian song, is turning into sadness in the faces of the Nigerian crypto enthusiasts
The dreams of the youth, cascading into flowing rivers of oblivion.
Alas... Where lays the hope
The marriage of Nigerian crypto community and P2P is our succour.

I like the lure of the OP's post; it's lyrical to say the least. At such a time, Nigerians need a subtleness that should bring peace to their troubled hearts and souls, and a total departure from pain occasioned by the ineptitude of corrupt politicians. If only the CB of Nigeria headed by Godwin Emefiele (who is sadly dancing to the discordant tunes of the powers that be) knew that not even China with all its intelligence has been able to stop Bitcoin, he would speedily adjust to supporting anti economic policies of the Mohammadu Buhari led administration.

I am sorry to see this and this kind of stuff just absolutely sickens me. I hate countries trying to hold back its citizens from progression. From what I’ve heard and read, banks can’t be trusted so much there. Cryptocurrencies of course then become such a savior of sorts.

Well you can still buy/sell/trade on a decentralized exchange or over the counter right ?

I suppose he can but the first thing that he needs to do is to recover the money that he had in that account, there have been many examples in the past of people that once their accounts got closed they had lots of trouble to get that money back because now they needed to demonstrate where and how they got it.

What I always find it amusing to say the least is the hypocrisy of those institutions, the bank closed his account for its link with cryptocurrencies and at the end of the email you can see that despite the huge inconveniences that they are causing him they still claim that they will be happy to serve him in the future, which is completely ridiculous, I'm pretty sure that if that happened to me I'll never have an account with that bank ever again and I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone when it comes to that train of thought.

Any institution in Nigeria complaining about unregulated stuff is taking the piss, nothing is regulated in a corrupt country like this. The country is oil rich but most people don't benefit from it, instead they get oil pollution everywhere because politicians don't enforce laws and take bribes instead.

I'm so sorry for you. But I guess you guys will find a way to do away with banks, right? Who needs banks, after all? It seems they are helping you to stay away from them. You are definitely getting there, anyway. It's just that things would have been gradual. Now, it is being accelerated thanks to them.

Government actions like this one reinforces the argument of Bitcoin. The more the government clips the wings of its youth, the more they will find a way to rise and fly.

But I guess this is temporary.

I'm sorry for those crypto folks living in Nigeria. This is really sad that the government stops you from getting help to survive and help through cryptocurrencies. We may need some services from the bank but I'm sure you'll find a way to replace them.

Why don't they look to the feedback of their people that have been experiencing good fortune and life trading and relative attachments to cryptocurrencies?

This is a sad reality for folks down there in Nigeria; but after reading through, i think only the government would be missing out; so do not panic and instead look towards the positives. With p2p, you get to convert fiat to crypto currency and vice versa without any charges; while government misses out on the tax they would normally get. Bitter but for the main time, good.

I am really sad to see your thread and unpleasant experience you have faced due to the regressive legislation agaisnt cryptos  cryptos in your country. Unfortunately, my country is also on the verge of announcing such legislation against cryptocurrency. So I am sure a lot of us will probably see such emails coming from our banks! It's good that your bank didn't freeze your money. In my country, banks are planning to freeze the accounts with all funds in it! We are yet to see that in action but that's an imminent future for us!

Binance Nigeria immediately halted Naira deposits upon announcement but they still offer it on their P2P plaform - Binance Adds NGN FIAT/NGN Pair and Launches Express Mode for P2P Trading in Nigeria (https://www.binance.com/en/support/articles/d7e039f5811441eabf963ae1b717b3da)

The way I see it, these smaller/commercial banks were already lenient with their users that were involved in crypto until the CBN reminded them of the previous circular and directed them to enforce it.

You'll never be able to open if that's the case because all banks are instructed to close crypto related accounts.

Don't lose hope. From what I've heard, it's only the Central Bank of Nigeria who is against Bitcoin but their SEC is actually willing to adopt cryptocurrency. Who knows, maybe one of this days the government will actually try to do something about this that banks can't go against. It's unlikely but I'm sure the people of Nigeria wouldn't just let cryptocurrency go.

I can say it's all a propaganda, I can't believe that only the central bank made the decision to ban crypto-currency in Nigeria, they way it is, the decision was conceived with alliances from the Central Bank and Nigerian politician at a time to frustrate Nigeria youth and crypto-currency users, as now I don't care if the make any decisions to overturn it, luckily enough crypto-currency can't be held back by government.

At least they are not with holding any funds left in there, user who face such closure can avail any balance left in there. Maybe this will change in future but as for now Nigerian cryptocurrency community people should avoid converting their cryptos into fiat and better convert them into a stable coin.

^ I also heard this, just probably because of the political way of their government, sometimes guessing their action towards cryptocurrency is very easy to determine what is the purpose of banning. Hopefully, from time to time, the Nigeria government will realize soon that banning BTC is not the answer that people they will prohibit their citizen not to use cryptocurrency, it is probably their belief.
Nevertheless, there is one good news here, Nigeria was able now to have awareness by most people and this will probably lead to a massive investment.

Yikes! That's a very unfortunate event that's been going on my friend, when government turns into dictatorship, we can only assume that everything good for public will be suppressed and everything that's good for government (the politicians) will be promoted even if it's harmful. It's very sad day for Nigeria, but I guess the government will also try to tackle down P2P transactions if they are going so forcefully, I can just wish and pray for the crypto community in Nigeria and hopefully government understands!

Its the first that we know. Just imagine if you have been trading for years and then suddenly when you send money to your bank account from exchange, your bank decides to freeze your bank account for you have dealt with cryptocurrency. I hope it won't happen anywhere else but we sure could be seeing this is just an experiment in Nigeria whether CBN really could stop BTC. Now its time the community stand together.

They can't stop BTC! What they are doing with this is slowing down the progress of the people who live there! I already wrote about this, but there's no harm in repeating it... When the government bans something that people use, people will find some illegal ways to continue with their actions! From normal people, they will create criminals... people will do shady things, and when it's shady it means it will not be any kind of security other than you create it for yourself...somehow.. but that is another topic!
When governments turn into a dictatorship normal people get hurt! Sharks have their momentum!

Sorry OP for the terrible decisions that the government of your country has made to prohibit them from trading bitcoin.
Do not lose heart, stay strong you will win. You could be the first country to adopt bitcoin without intermediaries. Only P2P when acquiring goods and services directly through cryptocurrencies. The Central Bank of Nigeria will regret the damage it is doing to the future of the country. If young people are defending their future because the present has an uncertain perspective.

I hope they can have optimistic that they can still use bitcoin. As long as the government is not shut down the internet connection, people can still search for other ways to use bitcoin, which will only be a matter of time for them to find out that way. The government can not hold their people using crypto, especially if their people can see the chances to make money from crypto. I hope the government can see the benefits of crypto to their people and not banning or prohibit their people from using crypto.

Even if they freeze the accounts, legally they can't really hold on the money unless they can prove in court about any illegal activity other than just involvement in crypto I guess. So the issue isn't about money getting stuck, more like a slap for something that was very normal very recently obviously sounds disastrous! I do however feel very optimistic that these moves will eventually be fought and defeated once the community speaks about it louder!

Why can't they? Unless the SEC gets involved and tries to regulate things and comes to terms with CBN, I believe, they're free to do as they wish. In addition, I think the court might press charges against crypto traders in terms of tax dodging and undeclared income.

This is too hassle for ordinary people who just want to have a better financial system and a country like Nigeria should really support this one because they are slowly rising, but it looks like their own government are afraid of this big change and no wonder why. Every one of us deserve a better financial system, I hope that this is not the end for Nigerian people to legally use cryptocurrency.

I feel sorry for your loss. It's sad that some countries are against cryptocurrency and even had to prevent their people have financial freedom. I am just thankful that our country is neutral when it comes to cryptocurrency. I believe that cryptocurrency has a bright future ahead and that some countries are not yet ready to embrace it. The government cannot accept the fact that banks are not really needed. However, banks are controlled by the government, which is not the same case with crypto.

The Nigerians must use their voting power to vote for the government that supports Crypto currencies. I think your current president is Muhammadu Buhari  ....right? Well, he is not making decisions to improve the lives of his citizens.  ::)

Most governments are now realizing that Bitcoin is going global and that a lot of people are losing faith in a currency that are losing it's value. A global adoption of Bitcoin will increase it's value and a more even distribution of the spread of bitcoins will give it more stability. Why would you go against the will of the people... well, you do that because you want to control them and also the value of their wealth.  ;)

Africa can wake up now or miss the boat.  ;)

One of the saddest news in 2021. I can not believe in my eyes that the Nigerian governments are blocking the progression in developing bitcoin and the cryptocurrency ecosystem when it is the second-largest growth crypto market. This will strongly affect not just the youth but anyone who believe bitcoin is their escape

Though, there are various ways to stay connect with the blockchain. Just don't let the cop catch you're doing so.

To say this news is a shocker would be a severe understatement. All along we thought Nigeria will be open and accepting of cryptocurrency given the fact that they are literally the number 1 country in cryptocurrency usage. I hope the government changes their mind for the better and see that cryptocurrency is no enemy, but a valuable ally that everyone should have to be future-proof. Indeed, they didn't have to crypto trade in obscurity in the past, and now because of this stupid rule, they had no choice but to do so.

This is a perfect example of how a country can be so backward when the whole world is trying to move forward. I have been closely following the Nigerian news for a while now and I have come to realize that the government doesn't care in the least about the welfare of the people especially the youths.
The rate of unemployment is high which led the people to fend for themselves in whatever ways they can find.
Many resorted to internet fraud, which is bad and should be curbed while several others went into cryptocurrencies and trading them which is good and should be encouraged only to find out the government is placing a ban on it

It's a very stupid position for banks/the Nigerian regulators to take.

They are literally shoot themselves in the foot in so many ways:

1. They lose out on a ton of transactions that could potentially be sources of fees/commissions
2. They get a bad rep in the crypto community and lose out on foreign business FDIs
3. They are essentially rejecting any possibility of doing proprietary trading/using BTC as a store of value themselves.

But hey, at least they are refunding the balance.

Certainly But the banks too I believe wouldn't want to do this because they know by now how many of the Nigerian population are dealing in cryptocurrencies and how many accounts they will eventually loos in this process and how much finance that translates too but they answer to the CNB/Government and I know if they don't follow order, there's a huge fine for them too. So some how I feel the banks are helpless even though they don't want to go this route. But it is a sad experience.    

The bank has given you the option to withdraw all the money in the form of a Draft. So they are not seizing anything. Just refusing to provide services as per instructions from their regulator. Something similar happened in India. Major exchanges pooled together to take up a case in the highest courts. The courts decided in favor of the exchanges in that instant.

Unfortunately, there are no easy solutions to this. All crypto transactions are traceable. All of those hacked cryptos eventually end up in circulation and I don't think it is difficult to connect them. This is the right time for the Nigerian community to showcase the positive effects of crypto for young developers and algo traders. This should be done before the authorities make up their mind and just declare everything wrong based on feedback from their banker friends. The only way is to garner public opinion in favor of crypto.

I hope that is only temporary in that country. I hope that the government can research cryptocurrency and what benefits that the government can take. The cryptocurrency can give more opportunity for their people and not just be a new source of income, but it can also be their investment for their future. If the government can realize that, including if they use cryptocurrency, they will have a new reserve for their income. The government does not have to close their bank, and they can still control the bank, but the government gives a new chance for their people to make money from cryptocurrency.

Even though I don't live in Nigeria, I consider all crypto users as family. Because for now the crypto community is still a minority, therefore
I am very saddened by what happened to the crypto community in Nigeria. But I believe they can make crypto transactions without going
through the bank. Hopefully what happens in Nigeria is only temporary, because crypto can help to become a source of income for the Nigerian
population. I am sure that eventually the Nigerian government will realize the importance of cryptocurrency for the Nigerian population.
I will always pray for the Nigerian community to be given strength to face these problems.

Thats the reason why Nigeria will never see a perfect Sunrise because there is none if they kept doing this!
I have always responded to Nigerian case in this fashion only. It doesn't make sense why they are banning it. They will loose big investors in the process and all the money which is associated with the crypto currency might just get pulled out of the banks.

If this amounts to larger portion then banks could see downfall themselves. That's a mistake they have done there. They must influence people of Nigeria to make more developments in the country's crypto infra and bring some jobs, money into the Nigeria.

Don't treat all crypto user as family since there are people who doesn't care about your financial goals also your feelings since there are people only aim for there personal gain so be selective to pick people who can really give a good boost to the whole community and ignore people who contribute toxicity so that you will find better space for long term in this industry.

Also I think the banking system of nigeria see that crypto is a big threat to them since imagine if all citizen will be on crypto they will be demolish and that will be bad to them in financial matters.

That's so disappointing.  Instead supporting the country to welcome innovations and new knowledge that may be useful to its citizens, they are the obstacle itself to prevent its citizens to success. They are blind in seeing bitcoin as an opportunity to the country and do they not know that it is very beneficial to know these kinds of things? It opens minds of people who are stuck in terms of financial crisis.

They don't see any goods towards crypto and never sees its benefits to their netizens but this government official has been posses by their own corrupt minds.
I hope these officials will change their minds and take a look at what will serve good and beneficial to their people. And I hope also that they will know more about Bitcoin, about cryptocurrency, and how this affects and improve the living status of their netizen.

Honestly the difference is crypto involves every type of people in the world and that is the difference. For example if you are in a situation where even exchange owners and regular small bounty hunters are in the same crypto world so we can't really say there are same type of people and yes we are not family. How can we be family with CZ who owns probably billions of dollars, and those are huge differences, there are people in between as well too.

However the biggest difference is people who want to see crypto as the money for the whole world and the people who do not care about crypto at all and only care about making profit. There is really nothing that you could change between those people because one could make a billion dollars today in profit and will allow crypto to be destroyed next day never existing, I can't do that, I would rather not make any profit at all if it means crypto will grow super big.

It is awful to see an actual email informing a certain individual having connection to cryptocurrency transaction having a closure of account because of the above mentioned reason. It seems like the OP's country is really that strict on implementing its rules and regulations regarding its stand towards cryptocurrency usage. It is really a bitter reality that is hard to be faced by those individuals located on those kind of countries having strict restrictions that once proven and figured out having a connection or doing cryptocurrency transactions will make their account into closure.

It's very pathetic and sorry for the loss in our co-crypto enthusiasts who live in that country, as I can say to myself, we're still very lucky to our government and we didn't do the same as them.

But, this isn't the end of the day for all crypto enthusiasts of Nigeria, they can still use cryptocurrencies or Bitcoin through decentralized exchange or even P2P exchanges and move quickly to non-custodial wallets.  Let's see what are those consequences waiting ahead while they are rejecting the good opportunity to becomes a most successful country, even though the most developed country was adopted Bitcoin, how much more to them.

To those who know alternative ways and staying pseudonymous in using Bitcoin, they will not much more worries as of now.

I was wondering what the CBN was, not being a Nigerian citizen myself.  So I assume that they control all of the little banks, one of which OP was using to deal with crypto?  That does indeed suck--it sounds like OP will get whatever money he had deposited with his bank back, but hopefully this doesn't mean he'll have to go unbanked for long.  I don't know how available banking is in Nigeria.

Governments want to regulate everything, and it's ridiculous, no matter what reasons they give (money laundering is usually top on their list).  Anyway, don't give up OP.  Find another bank if you can and figure out another way to do crypto transactions.  Best of luck, and you've got my sympathy here as well.

countries that holds their citizens from making its progress, also in third-world country, makes their country more poor and blocks the possible progress in economy.

Nigerian government made a huge mistake. The forbidden make it seem so much more pleasurable. All traders will continue trading but illegally. I wonder how Nigerian governments will manage to regulate crypto trading. How they will block those traders who use VPN or TOR to change their IP-addresses, how they will block traders who prefer to use exchanges that don’t require verification for trading? They need only to switch off the internet totally but that would be the huge step back somewhere to the Stone Age.

Mindset of the governments is sometimes the hindrance to its own development as a country.

There are a lot of possible positive opportunities in cryptocurrencies but the governments doesn't give some attention and time to understand this.

It is true that good governance will lead to development and progress but in Nigeria, it is the opposite. Hoping that other countries like Algeria, India, and etc., will also see the advantages and benefits of legalizing cryptocurrency in their country. Maybe that's also the problem that's why some of the investors are hesitating to invest on it due to their location.

The good thing about this mistake is that it is fixable. Hopefully, these problem will be resolved immediately because I can see the future of crypto in Nigeria, they are the second biggest population that is engaged in crypto related activities besides USA. If you have the infrastructure, you can track those people who uses VPN because they are still connected to the Nigerian Internet pipeline.

It saddens everyone that our crypto friends from other countries having this kind or problem. Other governments doesn't consider bitcoin/crypto as an asset that may help our daily lives and sees it as a threat to their superiority.

The countries which are seeing btc and other crypto as  their enemies and try to put ban on them instead of regulating them they are just pushing themselves back in time and will not be able to compete with other nations.Nigeria which is at 27th position in world ecomomy at present is moving to a path where it is digging hole for itself.

https://i.ibb.co/845xLq1/images-8.jpg (https://ibb.co/zHR2Tpq)

The debts are growing day by day of Nigeria and economic growth is slow and will crypto bans have positive impact on the economy or rather than regulating cryptocurrencies and collecting tax revenue from the users will boost the revenue treasuries of government.

Here is list for number of crypto users in Nigeria :

https://i.ibb.co/GnYkPZ2/images.png (https://imgbb.com/)

So what's the benefit of such acts by Nigerian government I don't understand it.

I trust they can have idealistic that they can still utilize bitcoin. As long as the government isn't closed down the web association, people can still look for other ways to utilize bitcoin, which can as it were be a matter of time for them to discover out that way.One day govrnment officials will realize will allow their individuals utilizing crypto, particularly in case their individuals can see the chances to create cash from crypto. I trust the government can see the benefits of crypto to their individuals and not prohibiting or disallow their individuals from utilizing crypto.

That's worst to think as their leaders begun dictatorship and taken away people's financial freedom on crypto. If they're afraid that this becomes a threat on their power, its very clear that their mindset is only for own pocket but not for welfare society. Leadership of that country has lack of political will that caters the benefit of their countrymen, and this is going to be difficult for them to grow economically if not corrected.

They want to protect the national currency against bitcoin adoption which theoretically will drive fiat to more devaluation and consequently the country's official economy.
Anyway the government there is fool, because they are unable to see bitcoin increases their citizens purchasing power, different from their local currency which only makes everyone poorer.

Nigeria gets 120k transfers in its best month and that makes them a crypto powerhouse? That's like 4k transfers a day in a country of 200 million people.  Setting the bar pretty low on what constitutes a "power house."  With such limited usage, there's now way it is having any transformation effect.  This graph is pure, unsubstantiated hype.