Two senior executives at Binance have been detained in Nigeria as the country cracks down on cryptocurrency exchanges, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The executives flew to Nigeria following the country’s decision to ban several cryptocurrency trading websites last week but they were detained by the office of the country’s national security adviser and their passports seized, the report, opens new tab said.
Binance did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The crackdown follows a period after several cryptocurrency websites emerged as platforms of choice for trading the Nigerian currency, which has suffered chronic dollar shortages.
The naira’s official exchange rate has been trading at levels close to the parallel market level after the currency was devalued last month, its second adjustment in less than a year.
Africa’s largest economy has been experiencing crippling dollar shortages that have pushed its currency to record lows after foreign investors fled following a previous oil price collapse and introduction of capital controls in 2015.
On Tuesday Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Olayemi Cardoso, said $26 billion passed through Binance Nigeria from unknown sources and users.
Cardoso said the government was “concerned that certain practices go on that indicate illicit flows going through a number of these entities, and suspicious flows at best”.
He continued, “In the case of Binance, in the last one year alone, $26 billion has passed through Binance Nigeria from sources and users who we cannot adequately identify.
“There is a lot that is going on now as a result of collaboration between the different agencies which include the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission), the police and of course the office of the NSA (National Security Adviser) and in due course as we progress and have more information to share, we will certainly share and suffice to say we are determined to do everything it takes to ensure that we take charge of our market or put differently, do not allow others to manipulate our market in a way that ends up distortionary and sub-optimizes for all Nigerians.
“We will not accept it and we will do everything possible to prevent any of these kinds of infractions from taking place.” With agency reports
