Recent reports have revealed that the Federal government of Nigeria has detained two Binance top executives, as the country cracks down on crypto platforms over alleged destabilization of the Naira.
Financial Times reports that the executives flew into the country following the government’s decision to ban several crypto platforms, but were. unfortunately detained by the office of the country’s national security adviser with their passports seized, according to people familiar with the matter.
Following the detention of the executives, Binance has halted trading of the Naira against Bitcoin and Tether digital coins on its exchange.
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Check out some reactions of Nigerians on X, following the arrest of two top Binance executives,
@Ebuka Nwafor wrote,
“This is a serious red flag for a country that is traveling around the world seeking for investors. Why is he detaining two Binance executives for a Centralized exchange platform that thrives on P2P amongst other valuable services”.
@OgbeniBiodun wrote,
“This is what happens when you have individuals in positions of power who would rather blame everyone and everything for their own failures and bad policies, how can you detain executives who came to negotiate with you, and you expect foreigners to invest in your country?”.
@YusufZone wrote,
“No matter what anyone feels or thinks, change is always inevitable and constant. The future of money is digital and that future is already here! Attempting to block or frustrate digital money is like attempting to arrest the breeze and locking it up in a cage! Is that possible?”
@iOXRael wrote,
“Detention is overkill. Binance has a thorough KYC scheme and the T&C allows them to share info with government agencies, especially those involved in anti-fraud and anti-money laundering. NSA only needed to ask.”
It is worth noting that the arrest of Binance’s top executives is coming after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Olayemi Cardoso recently disclosed that over $26 billion in illegal transactions have passed through the crypto platform Binance in one year.
In his words,
“We are concerned that certain practices go on that indicate flows, going through a number of these entities and suspicious flows. In the case of Binance, in the last year, $26 billion has passed through Binance Nigeria from sources and users who we cannot identify”.
Cardoso further added that the Apex bank has collaborated with different agencies which include the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission), the police, and the office of the NSA (National Security Adviser), noting that the bank is determined to do everything it takes to ensure that they take charge of the market and put it differently.
With the Naira’s continuous devaluation against the dollar and other foreign currencies, the Nigerian government has intensified its crackdown on cryptocurrency platforms. The crackdown follows a period after several of these platforms emerged as the preferred choice for Nigerians to trade the Nigerian currency, which has continued to suffer a fall.
Notably, Nigeria’s economy has been experiencing crippling dollar shortages that have pushed its currency to record lows.