Crypto exchange platform Binance has officially added the Nigerian Naira on its peer-to-peer platform, becoming the first African currency on the exchange platform.
According to the announcement, Binance P2P users can trade major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) using NGN with zero transaction fees.
#Binance P2P Adds Nigerian Naira $NGNhttps://t.co/cOm6lupm7b pic.twitter.com/SNtwdAM7nA
— Binance (@binance) March 5, 2020
This new offering began on March 4 and Binance P2P, a consumer-to-consumer business arm of Binance exchange, would roll out support for the first African fiat currency on its platform.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), CEO of Binance, said this addition is in line with the exchange platform’s ongoing fiat-to-crypto expansion. He explains Africa is a “blockchain continent,” and cryptocurrency will favor the people in the continent to complete essential financial operations.
He further said Binance also intends to introduce its P2P trading service to more African countries this month.
“We are also providing a unique opportunity for users to become P2P Merchants where they can post trade ads and earn money. Estimated to be a few thousand dollars USD equivalents per month, while providing cryptocurrency access for their communities,” CZ said.
Binance ongoing expansion
The world’s largest crypto exchange recently increase the number of fiat currencies it supports. More-so with the addition of Nigerian Naira. Other notable mentions include the Euro, Ruble, Turkish lira, Ukrainian Hryvnia, Kazakhstani Tenge, and Indian Rupee, among others.
Notably, NGN is not relatively new to the Binance exchange. In October 2019, the crypto exchange initially opened deposits for NGN. This featured three major trading pairs, namely USD/NGN, Binance Coin/NGN, and Bitcoin/NGN.
Binance also allows P2P trading on its platform for Chinese users and through WeChat and AliPay, although the latter company monitors the platform for trading, which is illegal under the companies terms and services.
Fiat-to-crypto purchases for both the dollar and euro through the Gemini Dollar (GUSD) and Paxos Standard (PAX) are allowed too.
Binance Africa incursion
Notably, the launch of NGN support for Binance marks the second time the exchange platform enters the African crypto space.
Binance previously launched its Binance Uganda exchange allowing Ugandan users to join the platform. And deposit money using the country’s official currency, the Ugandan Shillings (UGX).
Additionally, Nigeria is also a crypto-friendly nation, although the country has not officially announced support for digital kind of transactions. It is currently legal to partake in crypto transactions.
In a related new Binance CEO earlier tweeted unscheduled temporary system maintenance. This took about two hours to sort out. According to CZ’s tweet, the trading was on hold due to some message broker issue.
