Digital Right Lawyer Demands Revoking of CBN’s Crypto Banking Ban

The Digital Rights Lawyers Initiative (DRLI) has filed a case against the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and SEC for imposing a banking ban on cryptocurrencies. The court filing has demanded the judge to stay on the banking ban claiming CBN doesn’t hold the jurisdiction to impose such a ban. The court filing has put both CBN and SEC as defendants in the case. The official court filing noted,

the court for a perpetual injunction restraining the apex bank from regulating and/or further regulating virtual currencies/ cryptocurrencies in Nigeria.

The Central Bank of Nigeria recently issued a crypto banking ban prohibiting national banks from offering their service to crypto exchange and traders. The decision got the country by surprise as Bitcoin has grown in popularity in the country as the government has put a limit on US Dollar holdings.

Nigerian Crypto Traders Looking For Alternatives to Trade Crypto

The local Nigerian crypto-traders were highly disappointed in the government’s decision but not surprised as the government has done everything in its power to cut access to foreign currencies even the US Dollar. The Nigerian crypto traders are currently looking for alternative methods to trade and peer-to-peer markets could see a rise in popularity in the region.

CBN claims the ban is to prohibit the use of crypto for illicit activities, an argument used by most of the nations that have decided to ban crypto even though there is little proof for such claims. Most of these countries eventually had to lift such bans that include the likes of Asian countries such as India and Pakistan.

Bitcoin’s decentralized nature makes it impossible to completely ban and governments around the world have resorted to banning trading platforms. However, even in these countries, bitcoin trading has continued via P2P markets. Nigerian traders could also resort to such means as even if banks don’t offer the liquidation, they can take out their profits via P2P markets.