The penalties are part of efforts by the central bank to ensure commercial lenders implement a February 2021 order to block trading in cryptocurrencies

The West African nation accounts for the largest volume of [P2P] cryptocurrency transactions outside the U.S., according to Paxful, a Bitcoin marketplace.

The Central Bank of Nigeria fined Stanbic IBTC Bank, the domestic unit of Standard Bank Group Ltd., 200 million naira ($478,595) for two accounts alleged to have been used for crypto transactions

Access Bank Plc, the country’s biggest lender by assets, was fined 500 million naira for failure to close customers’ crypto accounts,

The central bank was able to detect the relevant transactions using an “advanced capability” that Nigerian lenders don’t have access to, and they’ve asked the central bank to share the technology

“It doesn’t seem that they are going to entertain a refund, but they are now sharing intelligence with us to be able to kind of deter clients.”