ABUJA, June 10 (AGCNewsNet) – Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned the public against investing in a cryptocurrency called Punisher Coin, also known as $PUN, citing its lack of regulatory approval and high risk of investor losses.

In a public notice issued on Sunday, the Commission said Punisher Coin and its promoters are not registered to operate or solicit investments in Nigeria’s capital market.

“The attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission (‘the Commission’) has been drawn to several online publications blatantly advertising the unauthorised presale of a cryptocoin termed ‘Punisher Coin’, aka ‘$PUN’,” the SEC said in its statement.

The regulatory body expressed concern over a recent Daily Trust E-Paper article titled ‘Cryptos to Buy: Why Punisher Coin Could Join Avalanche and Chainlink as a Top Investment Pick’, which it described as promoting an unregistered investment scheme.

Preliminary investigations, the SEC noted, indicate that $PUN is a meme coin—a category of digital assets typically driven by online hype rather than real-world utility or intrinsic value.

“Punisher Coin, or $PUN, is a meme coin. Meme coins generally have no use case, intrinsic value, or tangible projects backing them,” the Commission said. “Any attributed value is usually linked to its promoters or community hype, which often leads to fraudulent pump-and-dump schemes.”

Pump-and-dump schemes involve artificially inflating a coin’s price through misleading promotions to attract unsuspecting investors. Once the price surges, early promoters sell off their holdings, causing a price crash that leaves other investors with steep losses.

The SEC emphasized that Nigerians who choose to invest in the unregulated $PUN token do so at their own risk.

The Commission has stepped up its efforts in recent months to crack down on unregistered crypto offerings and protect retail investors amid rising interest in digital assets in Africa’s most populous nation.

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