Nigeria asks Binance for data on its top 100 local users: report
Quick Take
- Nigerian authorities reportedly said that the crypto exchange supported “illegal transactions” at the country’s expense.
- Two Binance executives have been detained in government housing in Nigeria for over two weeks.
Nigeria has asked Binance to submit information on its top 100 users in the country — and its entire transaction history for the last six months — in the latest development of the dispute between Nigerian authorities and the exchange, Financial Times reported Tuesday.
The country’s national security adviser also reportedly requested the exchange to settle outstanding tax liabilities.
According to earlier reports, Nigerian authorities demanded Binance to pay a penalty of $10 billion for profiting off of “illegal transactions” at the country’s expense. The country’s central bank governor, Olayemi Cardoso, also said that Binance Nigeria potentially processed illicit flows of $26 billion from unidentifiable sources last year, according to local news outlet NairaMetrics.
The authorities also claimed that Binance had contributed to the devaluation of the national currency, the naira, according to FT.
The conflict has continued to escalate as two Binance executives — financial crime compliance team lead Tigran Gambaryan and Africa regional director Nadeem Anjarwalla — have been detained in a Nigerian government housing since Feb. 26, according to reports.
Earlier this month, Binance cut support for the Nigerian naira on its platform, delisting all naira trading pairs, among others.
Binance did not immediately respond to The Block’s request to comment on the reported request for user data. However, the exchange said in a statement Tuesday that it is “working collaboratively with Nigerian authorities to bring Nadeem and Tigran back home safely to their families.”
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