Market Confidence at Stake: ABCON Rallies Against Binance, Citing Pessimism

“Engaging in a fierce competition, the imperative to curtail Binance’s presence within the nation hinges on the acquisition of adequate liquidity,” stated the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) as they appealed to the federal government for the prohibition of Binance operations in the country.

Binance, an online exchange facilitating cryptocurrency transactions, has emerged as a hub for trading hundreds of the most widely recognized cryptocurrencies. This presence, however, has contributed to mounting pressure on the naira, as noted by the ABCON spokesperson.

Highlighting a significant concern, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria underscored in June that Binance Nigeria operates without registration or regulation by the SEC, rendering its activities illegal.

Mr. Gwadabe, President of ABCON, explained, “If you know about Binance, you will know that binance trading is becoming the anchorage of both the investors and exporters window and the parallel market, which is unfortunate. So, we have to do something that can stop binance. It’s a competition. We need to ban binance and the only way to do so is if you have liquidity.”

Speaking further he said, “As I speak, binance is the most liquid market. They do 1.2 million transactions per second. So it’s a very liquid market but that is not a scary status, we can break it through our local content and peculiarities.”

The ABCON president noted that optimism was giving way to pessimism in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market.

Mr Gwadabe pointed out that when pessimism overrode the psychology of the market, it would lead to loss of confidence.

He said, “So we are seeing a scenario where optimism is giving way to pessimism. Investors are not coming. Nigerians don’t have confidence in the market and we have to look for external finances that are coming in as a quick fix.”