Nigeria may seek a $10 billion fine from Binance as retribution as the country believes they “really messed up” the local economy.
The government of Nigeria is reportedly pressing Binance to provide information on its top 100 users in the country amid an ongoing crackdown on the exchange.
In addition to data on Binance’s top 100 users, Nigerian authorities have requested Binance pass their transaction history for the past six months, according to a March 13 report by the Financial Times.
The office of Nigeria’s national security adviser has also asked Binance to resolve any outstanding tax liabilities, the report notes.
The request is part of negotiations between Binance and Nigeria, which argued that Binance had a crucial impact on the local currency, the Nigerian naira.
Bayo Onanuga, the presidential adviser on information and strategy, argued that Binance and other crypto platforms manipulated the naira and triggered a massive decline in the local fiat currency. The official also suggested banning platforms like Binance in the country.
In response to Binance’s effort to find a dialogue with Nigerian authorities, the local prosecutors detained two senior Binance executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla. The execs remain under detention even after Binance delisted all naira transactions and stopped peer-to-peer naira transactions in late February.
Onanuga reportedly said that Gambaryan and Anjarwalla were cooperating with Nigerian authorities and providing a “lot of information.” He also suggested that Nigeria may seek to impose a $10 billion fine as retribution because they “really messed up” the Nigerian economy.
“Let’s allow law enforcement agencies space and time to undertake their work. Outcomes will be made public in due course,” the office of the national security adviser said.
Some online users questioned Binance’s ability to service users in Nigeria in such a situation, though. “If a company ceases NGN [naira]-related services, it means they’re dusting their hands off Nigeria and anything concerning Nigeria,” one commenter on X argued.
Nigeria has emerged as one of the fastest-growing crypto economies in the world in the past few years. It is also the second-biggest economy in the world in terms of crypto adoption in 2023. In August 2022, Nigeria was named the most crypto-obsessed country in the world by the number of Google searches for “cryptocurrency” or “buy crypto.”
According to the Financial Times, Nigeria abandoned its years-long currency peg and allowed the naira to trade freely in June 2023. The country subsequently faced record-high inflation. In January 2024, Nigeria’s consumer inflation rose for the 13th straight month to nearly 30%, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
