This is flowing from the assertion made by the governor of central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, during the Tuesday briefing, that he suspects manipulation of the naira on crypto platforms. He also mentioned that there have been some ‘illicit flows‘ on these platforms. He stated, that an amount of $26 billion flowed through Binance Nigeria in last one year from sources and users which the apex bank could not identify.
Due to this and further assertion made by competent persons, the office of the National security adviser has also mentioned that the federal government is investigating the operations of Binance.
However, the Financial Times on Wednesday had released a report that two executives from Binance, who had flown into the country last week, owing to the ban of their website, have been detained by the Government.
Before this, on February 21st 2024, The National Communications Commission had restricted access of Nigerians to websites of crypto trading platforms such Binance, Coinbase etc. Whist also requesting that Binance disable USDT trades in naira. Currently, Binance is no longer offering peer to peer trades that allow users to exchange naira for USDT.
This is an attempt by the government and other law enforcement agencies such as; The Nigerian Police Force, Economic and Financial Crime Commision, The Office of the National Security Adviser, to clamp down on economic saboteurs and prevent manipulation of the naira in the Foreign exchange market.
Nigerians especially cypto traders are however apprehensive about the moves of the government in the crypto industry, they have expressed their concerns to know the intentions of the government in restricting trading.
However, in an interview with BusinessDay, Chimezie Chita, founder and coordinator of Blockchain Nigeria Users Group, said that Binance has been found complicit in a couple of transactions that have raised the red flags to the national authorities. He also said that an unregulated space is the most dangerous, affirming that the average crypto trader was not at risk.
Mr Olayemi Cardoso, had however promised that the outcome of the investigation will be released. We hope and expect that there would not be an adverse outcome, which would affect the income of the genuine and sincere participants on the crypto market. While still expecting that the government takes the right measures, to ensure that our currency is stabilised and not manipulated by unauthorised factors.
