Cryptocurrency is a product embedded in a high level of illegality –

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has claimed that the majority of cryptocurrency transactions are embedded in illegality. He also claims that there is no place for cryptocurrencies in the Nigerian banking space.

Pushback against protest lawsuits from Endsars

In his latest anti-cryptocurrency salvo, that was published However, through the punch, Emefiele appeared to push back on claims that the CBN had abruptly decided to ban cryptocurrency companies from the banking system as punishment for the industry's perceived support of the Endsars protests.

When the CBN froze the bank accounts of people involved in organizing the Endsars protests in late 2020, protest leaders began seeking a Donate via Bitcoin. As reported by Bitcoin.com News, this shift to Bitcoin donations ultimately allowed organizers to further fund protest activities.

When the CBN suddenly... exclusion of cryptocurrency entities from the banking ecosystem, some observers in Nigeria speculated that this decision was made because the central bank failed to stop the flow of funds to the organizers of the Endsars protest.

Emefiele's point of view

However, in response to these claims, Emefiele is quoted in the report explaining why the CBN is generally against cryptocurrency transactions.

“As you said, the Endsars issue came up in October 2020 and we came up with the question that we would not make our banking and payment system space available to those who were in the cryptocurrency business because we believe that a significant portion of the transactions taking place there are illegal,” he explained.

Emefiele then suggested that the CBN, like many of its counterparts, does not support cryptocurrency transactions as they are encrypted and cannot be decrypted by any central bank. He said:

Look at it this way: What is there to hide? Why are the transactions so hidden? Why are they encrypted? If I make a transaction and a regulator or security agency wants to see the nature of the transaction, they (transactions) cannot be encrypted so that people know what happened. This means that cryptocurrency is a product embedded in a high level of illegality.

In fact, according to Emefiele, donations to the Endsars movement had nothing to do with the CBN directive of February 5, 2021. Rather, this directive is in line with the stance of many central banks around the world, Emefiele explained.

Do you agree with Emefiele’s comments on cryptocurrencies? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

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