The Nigerian government is reportedly exerting pressure on Binance to disclose information about its top 100 users in the country as part of an ongoing crackdown on the exchange. According to a report by the Financial Times on March 13, Nigerian authorities have also requested Binance to provide them with the transaction history of the past six months. Additionally, the office of Nigeria’s national security adviser has asked Binance to address any outstanding tax liabilities.
These requests are a result of negotiations between Binance and Nigeria, with the argument being made that Binance has had a significant impact on the local currency, the Nigerian naira. Bayo Onanuga, the presidential adviser on information and strategy, alleges that Binance and other crypto platforms manipulated the naira, leading to a sharp decline in its value. Onanuga has even suggested banning platforms like Binance in the country.
In response to Binance’s attempts to engage in a dialogue with Nigerian authorities, two senior Binance executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, were detained by local prosecutors. Despite Binance delisting all naira transactions and stopping peer-to-peer naira transactions in late February, the executives remain in detention.
Onanuga claims that Gambaryan and Anjarwalla are cooperating with Nigerian authorities and providing them with a significant amount of information. He also hinted that Nigeria may impose a $10 billion fine on Binance as retribution for the negative impact on the Nigerian economy.
The office of the national security adviser has urged the public to allow law enforcement agencies the necessary space and time to carry out their work, promising that the outcomes will be made public in due course.
Binance has chosen not to comment on the specific allegations made against the exchange by Nigerian authorities. A spokesperson for Binance clarified that the exchange has not exited Nigeria, but rather removed all naira trading pairs and transactions.
However, some online users have expressed doubts about Binance’s ability to serve users in Nigeria under these circumstances. One commenter on X argued that if a company ceases naira-related services, it indicates that they are distancing themselves from Nigeria and anything related to the country.
It is worth noting that Nigeria has emerged as one of the fastest-growing crypto economies globally in recent years. By 2023, it is expected to become the second-largest economy in terms of crypto adoption. In August 2022, Nigeria was recognized as the most crypto-obsessed country based on the number of Google searches for “cryptocurrency” or “buy crypto.”
According to the Financial Times, Nigeria abandoned its long-standing currency peg in June 2023 and allowed the naira to trade freely. As a result, the country has experienced record-high inflation, with consumer inflation rising for the 13th consecutive month to nearly 30% in January 2024, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.