By Adedapo Adesanya
Foreign stocks trading and investment firm, Risevest, has voluntarily announced a temporary suspension of cryptocurrency assets in Nigeria until the current wave of clampdown on operations settles.
In a notice sent to customers on Friday and seen by Business Post, the platform said users won’t be able to fund their wallets using cryptocurrency as it allowed.
The company revealed that it noticed that there has been an uptick in funding and possible gaming of the system, and warned against this.
“We’re temporarily suspending crypto funding on Rise for users in Nigeria, pending clarity on the regulatory landscape.
“As such, you cannot fund your wallet using the crypto option. In the meantime, kindly utilise other funding methods available on the app,” the firm said.
It appears that users who are trying to scale the recent trouble facing cryptocurrency trading platforms like Binance, Quidax, and OctaFX, among others are using alternatives like Rise to move their money.
It warned that parties found guilty of round-tripping will be barred permanently from the platform.
“We also noticed a recent huge inflow of funding from the crypto channel into users’ wallets and attempts to withdraw the funds shortly after into their naira wallet.
“We want to reiterate the importance of adhering to Rise’s Terms of Use, especially on roundtripping. Rise strongly discourages any form of roundtripping on the app, and accounts found defaulting will be suspended or permanently barred,” it warned.
“The Rise platform is designed solely for investment purposes, offering various opportunities, and we encourage you to take advantage of them,” the company added.
It has been a turbulent week for cryptocurrency users, traders, and exchanges as the government intensified efforts to shake up their operations following perceived influence in the volatility in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange (FX) market.
The Nigerian government detained two executives of Binance, the prominent crypto trading platform that authorities alleged was enabling the Naira currency’s slide.
Last week, telecommunication providers shut off user access to the websites of Binance, Coinbase and other crypto exchanges.
On Wednesday, Binance stopped offering peer-to-peer trades that allowed users to exchange the naira for USDT, a digital currency pegged to the US Dollar.
Modupe Gbadeyanka