Two senior executives at Binance have been detained in Nigeria as the country attempts to curb naira speculation to steady its free fall by clamping down on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Two employees of Binance were detained by the Nigerian Security Forces in Abuja on Monday night as part of an investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange's operations in Nigeria.
Two senior executives at Binance have been detained in Nigeria as the country attempts to curb naira speculation to steady its free fall by clamping down on cryptocurrency exchanges.
According to the report, their passports were seized, as reported by people privy to the matter.
An adviser to the office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Binance declined to comment.
On Tuesday, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, said $26 billion passed through Binance Nigeria from unknown sources and users.
SaharaReporters reported that he stated this in Abuja at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the apex bank, the first since he assumed office in September 2023.
His comment came amid the free fall of the naira and clampdown on Bureaux de Change by President Bola Tinubu’s administration in an attempt to steady the rapid decline.
Cardoso said the government was “concerned that certain practices go on that indicate illicit flows going through a number of these entities, and suspicious flows at best”.
He continued, “In the case of Binance, in the last one year alone, $26 billion has passed through Binance Nigeria from sources and users who we cannot adequately identify.
“There is a lot that is going on now as a result of collaboration between the different agencies which include the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission), the police and of course the office of the NSA (National Security Adviser) and in due course as we progress and have more information to share, we will certainly share and suffice to say we are determined to do everything it takes to ensure that we take charge of our market or put differently, do not allow others to manipulate our market in a way that ends up distortionary and sub-optimizes for all Nigerians.
“We will not accept it and we will do everything possible to prevent any of these kinds of infractions from taking place.”
SaharaReporters reported last Friday that popular cryptocurrency trading platform Binance had confirmed that its official website could no longer be accessed by Nigerian users.
This was stated in a statement released by the firm on Thursday, assuring its Nigerian users that the situation should not make them panic as their funds were still protected.
The company said the blockage was in line with the regulations and rules spelt out by the relevant Nigerian institutions.
“We are aware that some users are experiencing issues accessing binance.com, along with other platforms in the industry,” the statement read in part.
It added that the blockage affected only its users accessing the platform via its website, noting that its app was still functioning for users to access the platform.
It continued: “Only users attempting to access the website are impacted, although the App is currently available. Importantly, all user funds are secure and accounts can still be accessed.”
Binance added that it would “continue to actively engage with regulators, policymakers and other relevant stakeholders to foster an open transparent dialogue about managing the evolving landscape of cryptocurrency”.
However, findings by SaharaReporters revealed that Nigerians could not access the Binance website and some users also found it difficult to access the firm’s application via their mobile devices at the time of filing the report.