BY Oluseyi Awojulugbe
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says people who invest in cryptocurrencies do so at their own risk because they are not protected by the law.
The apex bank sounded the warning in a statement released on Wednesday by Isaac Okorafor, acting director in charge of corporate communications.
The bank said virtual currencies like Bitcoin, Ripples, Monero, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Onecoin are not legal tender in Nigeria and NairaEx were not licensed or regulated by the CBN.
The CBN said transactions in virtual transactions in virtual currencies were “largely untraceable and anonymous thereby making them susceptible to abuse by criminals, in money laundering and financing of terrorism”.
“Dealers and investors in any kind of cryptocurrency in Nigeria were not protected by law, thus may be unable to seek legal redress in event of failure of the exchangers or collapse of the business,” the statement said.
The CBN had in January 2017 issued a circular urging banks and other financial institutions to be wary of virtual currency operations in Nigeria.
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