Blockchain’s Industry Meeting With SEC DG rescheduled

6th May 2024

The proposed meeting between stakeholders in the blockchain industry and the Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Emomotimi Agama, has been rescheduled.

The virtual meeting earlier scheduled for 10:00 am on Monday has been moved to 2:30 pm.

This was disclosed in an email sent to our correspondent early Monday, signed by the Public Relations Officer of Blockchain Industry Coordinating Committee of Nigeria, Kue Paul.

The meeting is being facilitated by BICCoN.

The email partly reads: “Thank you for your interest in attending the interactive session with Dr. Emomotimi John Agama, Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Blockchain Industry Coordinating Committee of Nigeria is facilitating this event specifically for the Nigerian blockchain industry.

“Please note that the interactive session with the SEC DG has been rescheduled for 2:30pm WAT on Monday, May 6, 2024.”

It was learnt that during the proposed Monday meeting, the government might choose to announce a temporary halt in the P2P crypto trading to enable it come up with a comprehensive set of rules for effective regulation of the space.

Other sources privy to the meeting said the government might choose to engage the crypto stakeholders on a new set of rules that could be deployed to better regulate the space.

In 2021, the CBN had restricted banks and other financial institutions from operating accounts for cryptocurrency service providers.

However, in December 2023, the financial regulator lifted the ban and announced a reversal of the policy.

Fresh concerns emerged in February over the activities of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, on its peer-to-peer platform, such as implementing a price cap on USDT trading.

Authorities said those activities contributed to the devaluation of the naira and destabilised Nigeria’s economy.

Nigeria’s volume of crypto transactions grew by nine per cent year-over-year to $56.7bn between July 2022 and June 2023, according to the 2023 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report by Chainalysis, a United States of America-based international blockchain analysis firm.