- Nigeria wants Binance to pay $10 billion for causing big losses by manipulating exchange rates.
- Accusations say that Binance caused the value of the Naira to go down by almost 70%.
- The Nigerian government took two Binance managers into custody because they think they may have been involved in money laundering and financing terrorism.
The Nigerian government wants Binance, a big cryptocurrency exchange, to pay $10 billion because they think Binance is cheating and making people in Nigeria lose a lot of money on cryptocurrency. This claim says that Binance has caused the Naira, Nigeria’s money, to lose a lot of its value, almost 70%, which has really hurt the country’s economy.
Bayo Onanuga, who speaks for President Bola Tinubu, has been speaking out about how Binance’s business has been bad for Nigeria. He criticized the platform for setting exchange rates that are not allowed by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Only the Central Bank of Nigeria is allowed to set these rates. Onanuga says Binance broke the rules and made the Nigerian economy worse when it was trying to get better.
The problem got worse on Thursday when the Nigerian government said they arrested two foreign executives from Binance. These people are being questioned by security agencies for doing illegal things, like using the platform to move money illegally and support terrorism.
Olayemi Cardoso, who is in charge of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said that a huge amount of $26 billion was used for trading cryptocurrencies on Binance Nigeria. He was worried that the transactions were not clear and that it was hard to figure out who was doing them. He said that a lot of them were done by people and companies that we couldn’t really tell who they were.
Even though there are very serious accusations, Onanuga said that Binance workers are working with the Nigerian government and giving them the information they need. This partnership is really important because the government wants to know how much Binance is affecting its economy and legal system.
One big problem is figuring out if Binance and other cryptocurrency companies are allowed in Nigeria. These companies did not follow the rules in Nigeria. The former CBN governor said in 2021 that they could not use cryptocurrencies until they followed the local laws. Even though the ban on cryptocurrencies was removed in 2023, the platforms still need to register with the SEC in Nigeria to be allowed to operate legally.
In reaction to the government’s requests, Binance has stopped allowing Naira transactions on its platform, showing that it is trying to follow Nigerian rules. The government says Binance needs to register officially with them if they want to do business in Nigeria. They want the company to follow the law and be transparent in what they do.
The argument about how Binance affects the changing exchange rate and what it means for Nigeria’s economy is really important right now. The government planned to spend money assuming that 1 dollar would be worth 800 Naira, but the actual exchange rate is much higher than that because of Binance. People who run the market say that if we don’t stop Binance, the Naira’s value could drop a lot.
The police are looking into what Binance’s bosses are doing in Nigeria and how they are running their business. They are also checking to see if the currency exchange market is being regulated properly. Zakari Mijinyawa, in charge of the press department for the President’s National Security Adviser, said that these leaders are being asked questions. We are talking with Binance officials and they are helping with the investigation. However, it is not clear when the investigation will be finished and what agreements might be made between the Nigerian government and Binance.
Warning: this is not advice about trading.
