Luno continues operations, Binance urges clients to withdraw naira

As debate on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy on cryptocurrency, Luno has said it will continue to operate as usual, while Binance has advised its customers to withdraw their funds as soon as possible.

Luno stated on its website on Friday that it would continue to operate as normal while seeking further clarification from the authorities.

“Some naira deposit methods are currently affected, please check the status page for updates. Withdrawals are unaffected and will continue to be processed, but may take longer than usual. Customers’ funds are completely safe.

“There is no need to take any action regarding your account at this time. We will update our customers on all incoming developments as soon as we receive further information, and certainly well in advance, should withdrawals be affected,” the company stated.

In the statement, Luno noted that it had always worked closely with regulators in Africa and other regions of its operation, and would continue to do so.

“Nigeria’s regulators had taken a pragmatic and forward-looking approach to cryptocurrency in the past and we’re confident that this issue can be resolved quickly, so Nigeria can continue to play a central role in the growth of cryptocurrency,” Lino added.

However, Binance, through its official Twitter handle, @cz_binance, stated that it received a notice from its channel partners that naira deposits and withdrawals would be affected.

“Please, withdraw your NGN as early as possible to avoid potential channel issues. We will share more details as they become available. To err on the safe side, we have also disabled deposits to prevent more NGN coming in,” it added.

Piggyvest had removed crypto buying option on its app, while Flutterwave sent messages to their clients thus, “In the light of the recent directive by the CBN prohibiting financial institutions from engaging in cryptocurrency, we regret to inform you that we will not be able to further extend our services to support cryptocurrency use cases in Nigeria, in line with our terms and conditions. We apologise for any inconvenience this might present and reiterate our commitment to supporting your other payment needs.”