The Nigerian Government has detained two senior executives of Binance, a crypto currency exchange company.
The officials, who flew into Nigeria last week following a ban on their website, were arrested by officials of the office of the national security adviser, reports Financial Times.
According to Chainalysis, crypto transactions between July 2022 and June 2023 in Nigeria reached $56.7bn.
The arrest came amid efforts by the government to rein in speculation on the naira by cracking down on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Speaking on crypto exchanges at a press briefing on Tuesday, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Olayemi Cardoso said, “We are concerned that certain practices go on that indicate illicit flows going through a number of these 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,” he added.
Recently, the government through the Nigerian Communications Commission blocked the online platforms of Binance and other crypto firms to avert what it considers continuous manipulation of the forex market and illicit movement of funds.
It also sent operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to arrest bureau de change operators at the Popular Wuse Zone 4 in Abuja.
The authorities were demanding to see a list of Binance’s Nigerian users since its inception, a person familiar with the matter said.
In June 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission said the operation of Binance Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of Binance, was illegal.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday, presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga said, “If we don’t clamp down on Binance, Binance will destroy the economy of this country. They just fix the rate.”
“We have saboteurs. Look at what Binance is doing to our economy. That is why the government moved against Binance. Some people sit down using the cyberspace to dictate even our exchange rate, hijacking the role of the CBN.
“They just sit down and fix anything they like. It’s sabotage and we are trying to prevent that from happening henceforth,” he added.
