Nigerian Government has slammed Binance, a popular cryptocurrency exchange platform, with a $10 billion fine over allegations of influencing the country’s forex crisis.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this Friday morning in an interview with the BBC.
According to Onanuga, Binance profited substantially from its “illegal transactions” in Nigeria while the nation suffered huge losses.
He stressed that Binance is not registered in Nigeria and has no presence in the country, adding that people used the platform to arbitrarily fix dollar-naira rates; a practice he said negatively impacted the value of the local currency.
Onanuga explained further that the Binance team was already cooperating with the Nigerian government by providing useful information, and had already suspended naira-related transactions on the platform.
“The platform fixes the exchange rate in Nigeria, which is illegal. The Central Bank of Nigeria is the only authority that can fix the exchange rate for Nigeria.
“Binance harbours a lot of people who fix exchange rates which impacted the country badly at a time when the government is trying to stabilize the economy,” he said.
Onanuga added that Binance influenced the increase in foreign exchange rates through currency speculations which made the Naira value to fall by almost 70% in recent months.
Meanwhile, Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) confirmed on Friday that Binance is being investigated by the Nigerian authorities.
Gatekeepers News earlier reported that two senior Binance officials have been detained in Nigeria as the nation looks to crack down on cryptocurrency exchanges to tame the speculation of the naira.
