The Federal Government (FG) has reportedly detained 2 top executives of Binance, a cryptocurrency trading platform. According to a Financial Times report, both executives came to Nigeria last week as a result of a ban on their website, but however had their international passports seized and were arrested by officials of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA). Reports suggest that they were detained for alleged manipulation in foreign exchange trading in Nigeria.
The FG through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recently blocked access to the online platform, Binance and other similar companies to prevent alleged manipulation of the foreign exchange market and illicit flow of funds.
On Tuesday, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), 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.”
Cardoso stated that security agencies, ONSA and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were collaborating to investigate possible manipulation of the country’s foreign exchange market.
According to a research group, Nigeria is one of the largest peer-to-peer crypto markets in the world, with crypto trading reaching $56.7bn from between July 2022 to June 2023.
