In a public alert issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Nigerians have been strongly warned to stay away from ZUGACOIN and SAMZUGA GPT, which the Commission says are not authorized or approved for any form of financial operations in the country.
According to the SEC, “The attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) has been drawn to online publications advertising unauthorized Crypto coins termed ZUGACOIN (with variants like SZCB and SZCB2) and SAMZUGA GPT.”
The Commission stressed that the promoters or issuers of ZUGACOIN and SAMZUGA GPT are not registered to operate in any capacity in Nigeria’s Capital Market. It also clarified that these digital coins have not been approved for issuance to the public.
The SEC’s preliminary investigation reveals that ZUGACOIN and SAMZUGA GPT are meme coins, which are generally considered high-risk because they lack real value or any tangible project backing them. According to the report, “Meme coins generally have no use case, intrinsic value or tangible projects backing them.”
The statement continued, explaining the dangers of such digital assets: “Any attributed value to meme coin is usually linked to its promoters or the community effort which most often than not are susceptible to pump and dump schemes.”
Pump and dump is a crypto fraud strategy where promoters artificially boost the value of a coin to attract investors and then sell off their holdings at high prices. Afterward, the price crashes, leaving other investors with losses.
“The public is advised to refrain from engaging in the purchase or promotion of ZUGACOIN and SAMZUGA GPT or any of their variants as any person who invests in the scheme does so at his/her own risk,” the Commission warned.
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The SEC also advised Nigerians interested in investing in cryptocurrency or digital assets to always verify the authenticity of such assets and confirm the registration status of any promoters via the Commission’s official portal www.sec.gov.ng.
