Nigeria hits Binance with US$10bn fine

THE Nigerian government has levied a fine of US$10 billion on Binance as part of its crackdown on the global cryptocurrency exchange platform, BBC reported.

This development was disclosed by Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy to President Bola Tinubu.

The presidential aide stated that the fine was imposed due to Binance’s illegal operations, which have significantly contributed to the devaluation of the naira in recent times.

Last week, the government moved against Binance, and other crypto platforms like OctaFX, Coinbase and other crypto firms following reports that currency speculators and money launderers were using them to execute criminal activities.

Yemi Cardoso, Nigeria’s central bank governor, during the monetary policy meeting earlier this week, stated that

Binance Nigeria facilitated transactions exceeding US$26 billion from unidentified sources in one year.

Business Insider Africa earlier reported how Nigerian authorities detained two high-profile Binance executives. Both executives had flown into the country after their website was banned and were subsequently arrested by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).

According to PREMIUM TIMES, the Nigerian authorities requested Binance executives to provide data relating to transactions involving the Nigerian Naira on the Binance platform in the last seven years. They also demanded that some other data relating to Nigeria be deleted from the Binance platform.

However, the Binance executives insisted that they should be taken to their respective countries’ embassies before they could comply.