Nigerian authorities have reportedly detained two senior executives from Binance Nigeria who had recently arrived in the country. The Central Bank of Nigeria’s governor stated that in 2023 alone, $26 billion flowed through the cryptocurrency exchange from sources and users that the bank could not adequately identify.
Passports of Binance Executives Seized
Authorities in Nigeria have reportedly detained two senior executives from the cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, who recently arrived in the country. According to a report by the Financial Times, Nigeria’s national security adviser’s office apprehended the two executives, whose names have not been disclosed, and seized their passports.
Prior to the detention, Nigerian officials, including Bayo Onanuga, a special adviser to Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, accused Binance of contributing to the naira’s rapid depreciation. Subsequently, the Nigerian Communications Commission reportedly instructed telecom companies to block or limit residents’ access to the websites of Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken.
However, Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, has since refuted claims that Nigerian authorities have blocked access to his platform. Meanwhile, Binance had to issue a statement in which it affirmed its obligation to remove users who act “in malicious or manipulative behavior.” This followed user allegations which implied that Binance had imposed a cap on the USDT to naira exchange rate.
Central Bank Takes On Binance
Despite Binance’s commitment to collaborate with local regulators, comments made by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, on February 27 showed that Nigerian authorities continue to attribute the naira’s depreciation to the activities of the cryptocurrency exchange.
“We are concerned that certain practices go on that indicate illicit flows going through a number of these entities [crypto platforms] and suspicious flows at best. In the case of Binance, in the last one year alone, $26bn has passed through Binance Nigeria from sources and users who we cannot adequately identify,” the CBN governor said.
Cardoso reported that the country’s anti-corruption agency, in collaboration with the police and the office of the national security advisor, is coordinating an investigation into cryptocurrency exchanges. An anonymous source quoted by the Financial Times revealed that authorities are now requesting a list of Binance users in Nigeria dating back to the inception of its operations in the country.
Meanwhile, at the time of writing, unconfirmed reports suggested that Binance had dropped the USDT/naira trading pair.
Source: Bitcoin
