Kategorie: Crypto Markets

• Nigeria’s SEC said Binance Nigeria Limited is neither registered nor regulated and its operations in Nigeria are illegal.
• The order against Binance Nigeria Limited comes days after the US SEC sued Binance and its founder CZ.
• Nigeria’s SEC had previously said it viewed all crypto assets to be securities by default.

According to a Friday circular from Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Binance’s Nigerian branch has been told to stop all operations immediately.

The circular stated that Binance Nigeria Limited’s operations in Nigeria were unlawful because it was neither registered with nor subject to regulation by the Commission. The circular by the SEC states:

“Binance Nigeria Limited is neither registered nor regulated by the Commission and its operations in Nigeria are therefore illegal. Any member of the investing public dealing with the entity is doing so at his/her own risk.

As the regulator with the statutory mandate of investor protection, the Commission urges Nigerians to be wary of investing in crypto-assets, and crypto-asset-related financial products and services if the service provider/its platform is not registered or regulated by the Commission. Nigerian investors are hereby warned that investing in crypto-assets is extremely risky and may result in a total loss of their investment.

By this circular, Binance Nigeria Limited is hereby directed to immediately stop soliciting Nigerian investors in any form whatsoever.”

Binance under siege

Binance Nigeria is the second Binance branch to be accused of operating unlicensed activities. On Monday, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Binance, its US affiliate, and its founder Changpeng Zhao violating the securities laws in the country.

The US SEC has gone further to request for the assets of Binance.US to be frozen. It is currently looking for an alternative way to serve Changpeng Zhao with the court sermon.

Nigeria’s SEC stand on cryptocurrencies

While this is the first action taken by Nigeria’s SEC against a cryptocurrency exchange platform, the SEC had previously stated that it considers all crypto assets to be securities by default.

Bloomberg reported in May that Nigeria’s SEC was processing registration applications from crypto firms on a trial basis but would not begin doing so formally until it had reached an agreement with the nation’s central bank.

Currently, it is against the law for banks in Nigeria to provide services to cryptocurrency platforms.

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• Crypto.com cited limited demand for institutional-grade services.
• The services will be suspended from June 21.
• Crypto.com’s retail mobile application and platform remain fully operational in the US.

Crypto.com has announced that it will discontinue its institutional exchange services in the United States from June 21, this year. This means that the services will no longer provide institutional clients with services in the United States.

While a majority of crypto players are worried about the ongoing crypto onslaught by the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), Crypto.com cited the lack of institutional demand as the main driver behind the decision, which was made worse by market testing.

The exchange, however, remains open to a potential re-launch of the suspended institutional exchange services in the US if the market conditions change.

Retail crypto services still available in the US

According to a statement from Crypto.com, institutional users of the platform were informed in advance that the service would be suspended. The exchange, however, maintains that its retail mobile application and platform remain fully operational in the US.

In addition, Crypto.com’s CFTC-regulated cryptocurrency derivatives trading is still available to American retail users, as well as its UpDown Options product, which enables users to open long or short trading positions on potential future movements of different cryptocurrencies.

Crypto onslaught by the SEC in the US

The month of June 2023 has proven to be the most turbulent in the history of cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the US. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) started legal action against both Binance and Coinbase for a variety of allegations including violations of the securities laws.

The SEC’s actions have drawn criticism from the larger cryptocurrency community as the SEC appears to be tightening its regulatory clampdown on the sector eight months after FTX’s demise.

While Crypto.com is yet to be probed by the SEC, the exchange has maintained its expansion throughout the world. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) recently granted Crypto.com an official major payment institution (MPI) license for digital payment token (DPT) services, enabling it to provide its services there even as it shutters its US institutional offering.

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• Chancer, a new company, will launch its token presale on June 13.

• The company hopes to use blockchain to disrupt the predictions market.

• Users will be able to create their own blockchain-secured markets.

The sports betting industry is going through significant growth around the world. Most of this growth is coming mostly from the United States, a country where online betting was banned. Today, American betting companies like Fanduel, DraftKings, and BetMGM among others have become giant enterprises worth billions of dollars.

The blockchain industry can disrupt the sports betting industry because of its global nature. Several blockchain companies are seeking to disrupt the industry. Some of the companies seeking to disrupt the sector are SportX and Gnosis. Now, Chancer, a new company is entering the sector, which analysts believe is ripe for disruption.

What is Chancer?

Chancer is a new company seeking to change the sports betting industry by introducing new features that are not offered by existing companies. The ecosystem will be secured using the Biance Chain blockchain, which is the market leader in dApp development.

The most unique feature for Chancer is that, in addition to the available market, users will be able to create their own markets, which other users can place bets on. For example, a user can create a market for an upcoming game.

In addition to sports, users can create a market for current affairs. For example, in an election year, the creator can create a market for the potential winner or loser for the event. While similar betting markets exist, many of them exclude some events, which Chancer’s users can take advantage of.

According to the developers, the betting market will be facilitated by the $CHANCER token, which will be created using Binance’s blockchain. In the future, the token will also be used for governance purposes, where holders will be able to submit and vote on proposals.

Chancer will have several features, including the use of smart contracts, open-source code, decentralised nodes, and decentralised data storage. You can read more about Chancer and how it works in its white paper.

Chancer’s upcoming token sale

As part of the developers’ product launch, they are planning to launch a token sale soon. A token sale is a situation where users contribute funds to a project and are entitled to tokens when they are listed. These users can then exit as soon as they are listed or hold them for a long time. In the past, many people have made a fortune by investing in token presales.

Chancer is planning to raise $15 million in a token sale that will have 12 stages. In each of this stages, the price of the token will be higher. Chancer’s token sale will start on June 13th of this year.

Chancer roadmap

Chancer’s developers have already done the preliminary work, including launching the website and commissioning a Certik audit. Other activities set to take place in the second quarter are launching the presale process, releasing the technical roadmap, and announcing partnerships with centralized exchanges. 

The third-quarter activities include launching the BETA version of the Chancer platform and launching the validator node program. In Q4, the focus will be on product development testnet. The project will incorporate Filecoi in Q1 of next year and remove centralized entities in the ecosystem.

Will $CHANCER be a good token?

It is still too early to determine whether Chancer will be a good investment. Besides, the token sale is yet to start. And historically, investing in presales and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) tends to be a high-risk and high-reward proposition. 

Therefore, in this case, my view is that interested investors can allocate some cash to Chancer. As with other crypto projects, the investor should be aware of the risks involved.

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• Brian Armstrong sold over 29,000 shares ahead of SEC lawsuit.
• Fox Business journalist says the sale was perfectly legal.
• Coinbase shares are currently down 35% versus their YTD high.

Shares of Coinbase Global Inc were hit hard this week after the SEC sued the crypto exchange. But the sell-off was relatively less damaging to CEO Brian Armstrong.

Did CEO Armstrong do anything illegal?

Reportedly, the Chief Executive sold 29,730 shares of the company in total only a day ahead of the SEC’s complaint prompting many to question if it had anything to do with insider trading.

According to Eleanor Terret – a Fox Business journalist, though, it was a perfectly legal sale as it was planned even before Coinbase was served a “Wells Notice”. Her recent tweet reads:

According to the SEC filings database, this was part of a pre-planned stock sale initiated in August 2022 that was intended to comply with Rule 10b5-1(c).

The SEC lawsuit resulted in an increase in Ethereum withdrawals at Coinbase this week (read more).

Some in crypto community are still not happy

Terret’s explanation, though, was not sufficient to satisfy everyone in the crypto community.

Some of them continue to see offloading shares at least as a lack of loyalty or a lack of confidence on CEO Armstrong’s part. David Orr – a Twitter user, for instance, wrote on the social platform:

It’s a fairly easy process to cancel/terminate a 10b5 plan. The optics here are terrible given his PR campaign to label himself and Coinbase as saviors of crypto.

Nonetheless, it remains to be known if such comments will make Coinbase CEO adjust the schedule of his future share sales. Versus their year-to-date high, Coinbase shares are currently down about 35%.

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