Nigeria’s crypto traders risk arrest and scams to bypass ban

Traders and crypto experts say the ban has only pushed the industry underground, with Nigerians trading between themselves using mobile messaging apps and established but unregulated platforms like Binance and Paxful, opening them up to high fees and scams. — AFP

ILORIN, Nigeria: Adebayo Sulaimon was just getting ready for the day when officers from the Nigerian Police Force raided the 23-year-old graduate’s compound in the southwestern town of Ilorin to arrest him and his roommate.

Sulaimon’s crime, police told him as they took him away that October morning, was trading cryptocurrency, something he had started doing a month before the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stepped up its efforts to ban the practice in February.