EFCC Blocks Account of Nigeria's Leading Crypto Exchange

Nigeria's economic and political henchman, the EFCC (Economic Financial Crimes Commission) has reportedly blocked the account of Remitano, according to the company's website.

Remitano is a leading crypto exchange company providing, among other features, peer-to-peer escrowed transactions, with services in many countries including US, Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, and of course Nigeria.

The EFCC came to existence through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act of 2002, saddled with responsibilities that include "the investigation of all financial crimes including advance fee fraud, money laundering, counterfeiting, illegal charge transfers, futures market fraud, fraudulent encashment of negotiable instruments, eompu1I:r credit card fraud, contract scam, etc." – _source

The Nigerian government, through its central bank has been vocal in its loss of love with crypto-currencies from when the new money stamped footing on its economy a couple years ago in the middle of its recession. How this recent crackdown on a major player in a market that boasts a N1.3b (~$3.6m) weekly transaction is yet to be seen.

It is important to clarify that Remitano operations still largely remains, as its peer-to-peer direct buy and sell of BTC, BCH, ETH and USDT would be unaffected. The blocked account is its "Bit Ledger" local bank account that allowed seamless and super fast transactions to its customers by offering them a Nigerian Naira (NGN) wallet. Withdrawals from this NGN wallet is therefore indefinitely suspended for users.

Remitano claims to be following up on the case.

Is this the first in a series of planned crackdown events? Only time would tell.