Teng, who said that Nigeria has never been a big market for Binance, noted that economists have explained that the movement of a country's currency is attributable to various macroeconomic factors.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of cryptocurrency trading firm, Binance, Richard Teng, has debunked the claim by the Nigerian government that it made a revenue of $26 billion in 2023.
Teng, who said that Nigeria has never been a big market for Binance, noted that economists have explained that the movement of a country's currency is attributable to various macroeconomic factors.
SaharaReporters reported in February that the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, said $26 billion passed through Binance Nigeria from unknown sources and users.
The CBN boss made the claim in Abuja at a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the apex bank.
The claim came amid the free fall of the Nigerian naira and clampdown on Bureaux de Change by President Bola Tinubu’s administration in an attempt to steady the rapid decline.
With the company and two Binance executives being tried for money laundering and tax evasion, the CBN governor said, “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.”
But Teng said, “It is useful to point out that Nigeria has never been a big market for Binance. The Government has said that we made USD$26bn in revenue from Nigeria in 2023.
“That is not the case. The $21.6bn figure is the total transaction volume from 2023. To provide an understanding of transaction volume: if a person were to take $1000 and trade it 1000 times, that would represent $1m in transaction volume.
“Our actual revenue is based on charging a small percentage of transaction fee and we are proud to offer our users some of the lowest transaction fees of any exchange globally.”
The Binance boss also called on global citizens to add their voices and concerns in convincing the Nigerian government to release the Binance executive, Tigran Gambaryan, being detained in the West African country.
Teng said that global citizens should make the Nigerian government understand that such unilateral action of detaining Tigran without a strong basis will be detrimental to the long-term economic development and well-being of the country.
Teng said, “Key stakeholders in the government of Nigeria made the decision to unfairly and unlawfully detain Tigran and they can just as easily make the fair decision to allow Tigran, a former US federal agent, to go home.
“We appeal on humanitarian grounds to all decision makers in Nigeria to allow Tigran safe passage home to his wife and two young children.
“Once these issues are resolved, we hope to work with the Nigerian government to support development of the Web3 industry, create more opportunities for its young, talented workforce, and support the effort to attract more foreign direct investment.”