Dollar rise: EFCC continues crackdown on cryptocurrency platforms, others

[Charles-Tim]

What I think about the further crackdown is that Binance is not the only exchange that they are going for this time, that other exchanges also. What is this? Who are they deceiving. Or illiteracy as EFCC wants to do the work that is not their role to play. Although, Punch said 'two sources said' it. While EFCC said the commission was doing everything lawful to ensure sanity within the country’s forex market, but which is different from whatnthe sources said.

A source said, “The EFCC is going after all currency speculators to stabilise Nigerian forex.”

Another source noted, “The commission is not only going after Binance but other cryptocurrency compliance and exchanges, this has been helping in stabilising the market.”

Reacting to the development when contacted, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, said the commission was doing everything lawful to ensure sanity within the country’s forex market.

“The commission is doing everything within the ambit of the law to ensure that there’s sanity in Nigerian the foreign exchange market,” he said.

EFCC did not say anything that is directly related to it.

But what if EFCC is truly going for other exchanges? Who are they deceiving when the exchanges websites has all been blocked? Also their work is about crime. I do not know when they tuned to be doing the work of other regulators.

They all deceived Nigerians to think exchanges were the cause of naira price devaluation. Again they are relating it to exchanges but some foreign analysts related the recent naira crash to interbank moves of the commercial banks.

Meanwhile, some foreign exchange market analysts have stated that the dollar rose slightly against the naira between Wednesday and Friday due to interbank moves of the commercial banks.

I do not think this money market analyst, Agba Akin is right as his own analysis is different and also related it to crypto exchanges but ehichnis not the cause of the recent nairs crash:

Meanwhile, some foreign
A money market analyst, Agba Akin, had on Friday posted a snapshot of the P2P trading platform on X, saying, “Since Wednesday, the dollar has started increasing again at BDC, here is why. The emergency lovers of Binance are back speculating on other P2P apps.

“They’ll keep adding N50 every day until they take it back to 2,500 which was their initial plan, and recoup their loss. CBN, act now.”

You know that the parallel market rate is lower than the official rate. This has been taken advantage of as some people are making use of the opportunity for profit. The parallel rate recently decreased more than the official rate, people make use of it for profit. The CBN made parallel rate to be lower than the official rate. But people also see it profitable to manipulate the exchange rate just as they accused people using crypto exchanges manipulating.

Read this:

Speaking with Sunday PUNCH, the Adhoc Committee Chairman of the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria, Almustapha Muhammed, said while it was true that the dollar gained during the week, the BDCs were not behind the currency gaining as it resulted from certain moves of the commercial banks.

He said, “Some people just want to put it at the BDCs. Actually what happened was that the dollar rose from the interbank rates and not from the BDCs. BDCs are parallel markets, while the banks are connected with the Federal Government’s official rate.

“CBN is giving us dollars at N1,101, but some commercial banks are doing interbank conversions. They convert from their accounts – domiciliary accounts and naira accounts. But the parallel markets are doing lower than the Federal Government.”

Speaking further, he said, “Last week, the CBN gave the dollar at N1,101, but the parallel market sold at N950. That was what even made some BDCs not bid for a collection of dollars at CBN, because when you collect that dollar from CBN, automatically you run at a loss because we sell at N950. Unfortunately for the dollar, banks are now doing their interbank.

“That was what made people rush into the parallel market and buy it (the currency) at the lower rate and then deposit it in the commercial banks, automatically making N20, N40, N60 gains, because when you deposit your dollar into your domiciliary account and ask for its conversion into naira, automatically, you are making that difference. That is exactly what happened.”

[Cryptoprincess101]

We all know that the EFCC is just "bitting about the bush" because they know the actual cause of Naira devaluation but they want to take the blame to exchanges but whichever way it is, continues clampdown on exchanges is not the way forward at all. They just want to frustrate crypto enthusiasts within the country and they know it is impossible know because crypto awareness is spreading day after day so there is no way their decisions can affect everyone.

It's laughable how our agencies doesn't even know their duty limits if not what is even the connection between EFCC and forex regulations? This country is becoming so ridiculous due to incessant harassment my this so called agencies. Time will tell because they will keep on fighting a lost battle that's all

[Charles-Tim]

It's laughable how our agencies doesn't even know their duty limits if not what is even the connection between EFCC and forex regulations?

Maybe they mean that criminals are using exchanges  . I do not know the work of EFCC that is related to this also. Even CBN has little say. The people that should regulate crypto are the SEC. Although, in some countries, central bank are given power to some extent. It is disappointing to be talking about exchanges rate and EFCC is involved.

[Churchillvv]

It's laughable how our agencies doesn't even know their duty limits if not what is even the connection between EFCC and forex regulations?

Maybe they mean that criminals are using exchanges  . I do not know the work of EFCC that is related to this also. Even CBN has little say. The people that should regulate crypto are the SEC. Although, in some countries, central bank are given power to some extent. It is disappointing to be talking about exchanges rate and EFCC is involved.

Are you still surprised to see this things happen? Let's be sincere, Nigerian authorities finds pleasure and satisfaction misplaced priorities.

EFCC can crack down crimes in every sectors of the country but the ideal of their initiatives is to redirect the attention of the citizens to Forex instead of the national GDP as a whole, and how it's manipulated to suit their decisions.

[Igebotz]

It's laughable how our agencies doesn't even know their duty limits if not what is even the connection between EFCC and forex regulations?

Maybe they mean that criminals are using exchanges  . I do not know the work of EFCC that is related to this also. Even CBN has little say. The people that should regulate crypto are the SEC. Although, in some countries, central bank are given power to some extent. It is disappointing to be talking about exchanges rate and EFCC is involved.

Since the SEC Nig declared Binance Nigeria LTD an illegal group last year for operating illegally in Nigeria without a licence. I want to believe that the EFCC has every right to interfere because Binance has been declared and tagged as fraudulent; it is not the SEC's responsibility to track their criminal activity; they have no right to pursue fraudsters; they simply regulate and allow the EFCC to take action.

Saw posts of some Nigerians asking CBN to go after other exchanges as Naira begin to depreciate again.

[Charles-Tim]

Since the SEC Nig declared Binance Nigeria LTD an illegal group last year for operating illegally in Nigeria without a licence. I want to believe that the EFCC has every right to interfere because Binance has been declared and tagged as fraudulent; it is not the SEC's responsibility to track their criminal activity; they have no right to pursue fraudsters; they simply regulate and allow the EFCC to take action.

Read the OP again. We are not discussing about criminal activities but naira exchange rate. This is not about EFCC.

There is nothing like Binance Nigeria. The people behind it said they created it in preparation if Binance will think of coming to Nigeria. Binance Nigeria is not Binance Limited and also not created by Binance Limited.

Saw posts of some Nigerians asking CBN to go after other exchanges as Naira begin to depreciate again.

Are you minding the illiterates? No one among them will admit that the federal government are not holy in this. They always turn to what is not. We have the federal government to blame as the cause of volatile market rose from them. If they want crypto P2P total ban, we will move to decentralized exchanges. You will even see people selling at higher prices there.

They should find something to do against the falling of GDP and they should open land borders so that food will be cheap. We were better when land borders were opened. They did not solve the problem but looking for something to fault about exchange rate.

[Igebotz]

Since the SEC Nig declared Binance Nigeria LTD an illegal group last year for operating illegally in Nigeria without a licence. I want to believe that the EFCC has every right to interfere because Binance has been declared and tagged as fraudulent; it is not the SEC's responsibility to track their criminal activity; they have no right to pursue fraudsters; they simply regulate and allow the EFCC to take action.

Read the OP again. We are not discussing about criminal activities but naira exchange rate. This is not about EFCC.

There is nothing like Binance Nigeria. The people behind it said they created it in preparation if Binance will think of coming to Nigeria. Binance Nigeria is not Binance Limited and also not created by Binance Limited.

Are you SEC spokesperson now? And there nothing to read in the OP -  I was only interested in the last part of your comment that I quoted about EFCC involvement in all this and I just gave  you reason why they have every right to operate the one they're doing now.

[Charles-Tim]

Are you SEC spokesperson now? And there nothing to read in the OP -  I was only interested in the last part of your comment that I quoted about EFCC involvement in all this and I just gave  you reason why they have every right to operate the one they're doing now.

If you did not read all but just little part, then you do not need to post. I only see it as not read all the answers but just conclude what you see first is right.

We are discussing about naira exchange rate. Why should they link it to EFCC directly. What we expect to see is SEC and CBN. EFCC will work with those organizations. Like SEC or CBN can tell EFCC who to arrest. Or EFCC to work with the exchanges to take down some criminals or their money but which has nothing to do with exchange rate.

[Igebotz]

Are you SEC spokesperson now? And there nothing to read in the OP -  I was only interested in the last part of your comment that I quoted about EFCC involvement in all this and I just gave  you reason why they have every right to operate the one they're doing now.

If you did not read all but just little part, then you do not need to post. I only see it as not read all the answers but just conclude what you see first is right.

We are discussing about naira exchange rate. Why should they link it to EFCC directly. What we expect to see is SEC and CBN. EFCC will work with those organizations. Like SEC or CBN can tell EFCC who to arrest.

I do not need to read the entire copy and paste articles to know what the discussion is all about. You're passing the wrong narrative and I came in to address it.

Isn't CBN leading the whole Binance and Naira exchange investigation alongside SEC? EFCC are only acting on request. I don't understand what made you think EFCC are acting on their own on the whole Naira exchange investigation.

EFCC never acted alone as you claimed-

The government has adopted many measures to stop the fall. Recently, it asked its Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to arrest Bureau de Change operators for speculative activities.

[Charles-Tim]

Are you SEC spokesperson now? And there nothing to read in the OP -  I was only interested in the last part of your comment that I quoted about EFCC involvement in all this and I just gave  you reason why they have every right to operate the one they're doing now.

If you did not read all but just little part, then you do not need to post. I only see it as not read all the answers but just conclude what you see first is right.

We are discussing about naira exchange rate. Why should they link it to EFCC directly. What we expect to see is SEC and CBN. EFCC will work with those organizations. Like SEC or CBN can tell EFCC who to arrest.

I do not need to read the entire copy and paste articles to know what the discussion is all about. You're passing the wrong narrative and I came in to address it.

Isn't CBN leading the whole Binance and Naira exchange investigation alongside SEC? EFCC are only acting on request. I don't understand what made you think EFCC are acting on their own on the whole Naira exchange investigation.

EFCC never acted alone as you claimed-

The government has adopted many measures to stop the fall. Recently, it asked its Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to arrest Bureau de Change operators for speculative activities.

Did you read the topic title?

This is it: Dollar rise: EFCC continues crackdown on cryptocurrency platforms, others

What the two sources said:

A source said, “The EFCC is going after all currency speculators to stabilise Nigerian forex.”

Another source noted, “The commission is not only going after Binance but other cryptocurrency compliance and exchanges, this has been helping in stabilising the market.”

What EFCC said:

Reacting to the development when contacted, the spokesperson for the EFCC, Dele Oyewale, said the commission was doing everything lawful to ensure sanity within the country’s forex market.

“The commission is doing everything within the ambit of the law to ensure that there’s sanity in Nigerian the foreign exchange market,” he said.

With these, I believe you can see fault in the news.

The EFCC said what is right but read the topic title, relate it together and understand what I am talking about. I do not know what this has to do with EFCC.

What did EFCC has to do with exchange crackdown when the SEC, CBN and other appropriate organizations for bitcoin and other crypto are not mentioned.

[Igebotz]

What did EFCC has to do with exchange crackdown when the SEC, CBN and other appropriate organizations for bitcoin and other crypto are not mentioned.

Does this answer your questions now? Or do you want us to start quoting the Constitution?

Regulatory agencies like Central Bank of Nigeria, Securities and Exchange Commission and National Lottery Regulatory Commission do not have prosecutorial powers, hence they transfer offenders to the EFCC for prosecution. Besides, EFCC is the coordinating agency for the enforcement of all economic and financial crimes.

Binance officials and Bureau De Change Operators were handed to EFCC to prosecute. I guess things are clearer now.

[Promocodeudo]

I want to understand something how does cryptocurrency itself affect the price of dollar against naira, this is funny, a country that has failed to do what's is right keeps making the same mistake all the time, if the were doing the needful how come both imported and locally made good keeps increasing when the naira was appreciating against the US dollar, our major problem here in Nigeria is that we don't have anything to offer to the international community in terms of production and it has been a problem  here, the local contents stuff is zero, so how do we go about the sustenance of the appreciation of naira against dollar, you see that isn't possible, I think they were just injecting money from our reserve to our economy and such is no longer sustenable thats why dollars starts appreciating again against the weak naira, our leaders knows what to do but selfishness woudnt allow them to do them, so at this point efcc is just chasing shadows, I think we should concentrate on production locally, empower more small scale businesses, subsidize raw materials for production companies, make power available in a subsidized rate and supervise production for atleast 6months, things will definitely change if we prcatice this because the sourcing dollar for importation and other other international transactions will reduce drastically.

[Coyster]

I want to understand something how does cryptocurrency itself affect the price of dollar against naira, this is funny, a country that has failed to do what's is right keeps making the same mistake all the time

The CBN and SEC believe that traders/speculators in centralized exchanges are to blame for the naira losing value against the dollar, dem believe say na these speculators dey artificially increase the price of the dollar against the Naira in these platforms, but of course, i no believe dem, as it is not possible for that to be the sole problem. I been talk am say after Binance, they will go after other centralized exchanges, and as things be now, na only a matter of time before that happens.

[Charles-Tim]

What did EFCC has to do with exchange crackdown when the SEC, CBN and other appropriate organizations for bitcoin and other crypto are not mentioned.

Does this answer your questions now? Or do you want us to start quoting the Constitution?

Regulatory agencies like Central Bank of Nigeria, Securities and Exchange Commission and National Lottery Regulatory Commission do not have prosecutorial powers, hence they transfer offenders to the EFCC for prosecution. Besides, EFCC is the coordinating agency for the enforcement of all economic and financial crimes.

Binance officials and Bureau De Change Operators were handed to EFCC to prosecute. I guess things are clearer now.

EFCC deal with crime and not exchanges crackdown. I have talked about this before.

We are discussing about naira exchange rate. Why should they link it to EFCC directly. What we expect to see is SEC and CBN. EFCC will work with those organizations. Like SEC or CBN can tell EFCC who to arrest. Or EFCC to work with the exchanges to take down some criminals or their money but which has nothing to do with exchange rate.

But I am talking about naira exchange rate and crypto exchange crackdown in Nigeria which has nothing to do with EFCC. I understood clearly what I was talking about.

I want to understand something how does cryptocurrency itself affect the price of dollar against naira,

What the government are after is naira exchange rate unification. The government are blaming anything that do not want to make that possible. People on crypto exchanges have their own rate and which the government do not like. When dollar official rate was ₦1600, it was ₦1800 on the exchanges and parallel market. The government do not like that and use it as a privilege to tell Nigerians that, that is where the manipulation is from but which is not true. But why the government increasing the official rate also at the time when they need money for 2024 budget, pay worker salary and also to pay Chinese loan.

The parallel market is lower than the official rate now but there is another manipulation. Who will they arrest this time. When the CBN rate was ₦1101, the parallel rate was around ₦950. People are buying in parallel market at ₦950 and put in their bank domiciliary account to sell at ₦1101.

I been talk am say after Binance, they will go after other centralized exchanges, and as things be now, na only a matter of time before that happens.

If mempool is less congested, using decentralized exchange will not be a problem. But I do not think it will get to the extent that all exchanges P2P will be banned from Nigeria. I hope Nigeria government will be able to handle this appropriately in a way Nigerians will not suffer from their stupid actions.

[nelson4lov]

The parallel market is lower than the official rate now but there is another manipulation. Who will they arrest this time. When the CBN rate was ₦1101, the parallel rate was around ₦950. People are buying in parallel market at ₦950 and put in their bank domiciliary account to sell at ₦1101.

The rate has been steadily declining since the CBN stepped in to handle the situation and the rate only went up a bit and less than 24hrs later. They want to prosecute Bybit and Okx since P2p activities still occur there. Bybit and Okx has been operating for the duration of NGN gaining against the dollar which was over 1 month. They had no issue then but have now?

My best guess is that the federal government is fighting a losing battle if they continue to desperately keep the rate low. They can only do it for so long. Rather than fix the economy by exporting more, they prefer to artificially bring rate down forgetting that all importations will require fx.

[Coyster]

If mempool is less congested, using decentralized exchange will not be a problem. But I do not think it will get to the extent that all exchanges P2P will be banned from Nigeria. I hope Nigeria government will be able to handle this appropriately in a way Nigerians will not suffer from their stupid actions.

The way things dey go now for Naija, decentralized exchanges fit become our only option of converting Bitcoin to Naira, and for the people wey never use am before, nor do they have an idea how it works, they have to start learning about it right now, and e make sense well well, based on privacy matter. I know say our government fit no end up banning all centralized exchanges, but e dey better to start preparing ahead by learning how to trade in decentralized exchanges.

[Belarge]

The way things dey go now for Naija, decentralized exchanges fit become our only option of converting Bitcoin to Naira, and for the people wey never use am before, nor do they have an idea how it works, they have to start learning about it right now, and e make sense well well, based on privacy matter. I know say our government fit no end up banning all centralized exchanges, but e dey better to start preparing ahead by learning how to trade in decentralized exchanges.

The country go better but na just time e go take, you go fit wait EFCC go continue to find means to sort out the positive reviews of these cryptocurrencies flying pumps and the holders. This special firm is assigned with heavy duties to make sure they're eradicating frauds. This country don scatter, the government dey fight with everything within their position to make they reduces the popularity and task frame of crypto due to their fear that it will surpassed the country's fiat currency and its gradually happening.

[Richbased]

But what if EFCC is truly going for other exchanges? Who are they deceiving when the exchanges websites has all been blocked? Also their work is about crime. I do not know when they tuned to be doing the work of other regulators.

They all deceived Nigerians to think exchanges were the cause of naira price devaluation. Again they are relating it to exchanges but some foreign analysts related the recent naira crash to interbank moves of the commercial banks.

The EFCC was formed to fight financial crimes but is very funny how they have suddenly turned into regulators to the extent of going after exchanges one after another pointing that they are the cause of Naira devaluation.

It will be recalled that when the federal government clampdown on Binance, it didn't have any impact on the naira but it was after some time that the naira started gaining strength and it wasn't even as a result of the clampdown on binance because literally, many Nigerians move to other exchanges and continue with p2p operations.

Moving from one exchange to another looking for ways to stop Nigerians from using them to perform naira to dollars transactions and vice versa is not the best way to fight depreciation because they all know the actual causes of it. Yes it got to my knowledge that the interbank transactions of the naira to dollars was the cause of the devaluation that occurred recently so if they know that why are they still pointing fingers at exchanges, the earlier they hit the hammer at the head of the nail, the better a solution may come out to address this incessant devaluation of our currency.

[Igebotz]

EFCC deal with crime and not exchanges crackdown. I have talked about this before.

It's obvious you have no idea how the EFCC operates and the power they have. Go and read the charges against these exchanges. Who handle tax evasion and money laundering crimes in this country?

You're spreading the wrong narrative about EFCC in this thread even after i told you they're only acting on CBN and SEC commands. CBN and SEC do not have prosecution power.

These exchanges are accused of tax evasion and money laundering and only the EFCC knows how to combat these crimes not the SEC or the CBN. Where is the misinformation coming from?

The EFCC was formed to fight financial crimes but is very funny how they have suddenly turned into regulators to the extent of going after exchanges one after another pointing that they are the cause of Naira devaluation.

CBN Governor and the FG not EFCC- when are we going to stop spreading the wrong narrative?