The Central Bank of Nigeria has reportedly ordered all commercial banks in the country to freeze the accounts of at to the lowest degree ii individuals engaged in crypto trading.

According to a Sunday report from Nigerian news outlet Peoples Gazette, the CBN's manager of cyberbanking Supervision, J.Y. Mammanand, issued a detect directing the central banking company to close the accounts of ii declared crypto traders and move their funds to "suspense accounts." Mammanand cited a CBN circular issued in Feb as grounds for the account closures.

The crackdown is reportedly function of a larger motion past banking regulators to immediately close the accounts of Nigerian residents or companies "transacting in or operating cryptocurrency exchanges" using local banks. In February, the CBN banned banks from servicing crypto exchanges in the state, citing concerns including volatility, coin laundering and the financing of terrorism. CBN Governor Godwin Emefiel later claimed that virtually of the crypto transactions through commercial banks in the country were "illegitimate" — that is, used to finance illicit activities.

Despite the key bank'south actions, Nigeria's crypto market has emerged as one of the biggest in Africa, with the continent'southward overall retail transaction volume having increased by more than 1,200% between July 2022 and June 2022. Cointelegraph reported in August that the state had the second-largest marketplace for peer-to-peer Bitcoin (BTC) trading.

Related: Chinese Banks Say They Will Non Freeze Legal Crypto Accounts

In addition, the CBN is preparing to introduce the land'southward primal bank digital currency, the eNaira, following approval from the Nigerian Federal High Courtroom in October. The eNaira is existence marketed as a faster, cheaper, more secure selection for monetary transactions, but will reportedly continue to circulate alongside Nigeria's fiat currency.