SEC cautions against investment in ZUGACOIN, SAMZUGA GPT
Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC
Abdullateef Fowewe
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned Nigerians against investing in or promoting crypto assets known as ZUGACOIN (including its variants SZCB and SZCB2) and SAMZUGA GPT.
A statement on the commission’s X (formerly Twitter) handle stated that neither the promoters nor the issuers of these digital assets are registered or authorised to operate in any capacity within the Nigerian capital market.
The Commission also elucidated that ZUGACOIN and SAMZUGA GPT have not been approved for public issuance.
According to the SEC, preliminary investigations indicate that both assets are categorised as meme coins, crypto tokens typically lacking intrinsic value, a viable use case, or a backing project.
The Commission warned that the perceived value of such assets is often artificially inflated by promoters or community-driven hype, making them highly susceptible to fraudulent schemes such as “pump and dump.”
“Pump and dump” schemes involve artificially inflating the value of an asset through misleading promotions, only for the promoters to sell off their holdings at peak prices, leaving unsuspecting investors to suffer significant losses once the hype dies down and the price crashes.
The statement says, “The attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) has been drawn to online publications advertising unauthorised Crypto coins termed ZUGACOIN (with variants like SZCB and SZCB2) and SAMZUGA GPT. The Commission hereby informs the public that the promoters or issuers of ZUGACOIN and SAMZUGA GPT are NOT REGISTERED to operate in any capacity in the Nigerian Capital Market, and also ZUGACOIN and SAMZUGA GPT are not approved by the Commission for issuance to the public.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that ZUGACOIN and SAMZUGA GPT are Meme coins. Meme coins generally have no use case, intrinsic value or tangible projects backing them.
“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 (a form of fraudulent activity that involves promoters spreading false or misleading information to create a buying frenzy that “pumps” up the price of a ‘coin’ and then “dumps” the coin by selling their coins at the inflated price. Once the promoters dump their coins and stop hyping the coin, the coin price typically falls and investors lose money).
“Accordingly, 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 similarly reminds the investing public of the need to always VERIFY the authenticity of crypto/virtual or digital assets, the registration status of their promoters and trading platforms via the Commission’s dedicated portal: home.sec.gov.ng/fintech-and-in… fintech-operators/ or sec.gov.ng/cmos before engaging in any form of virtual or digital assets investment.”
