Newsfront Online …Telling the Public as it is
The federal government has asked cryptocurrency trading firm, Binance, for information on its top 100 users in Nigeria as well as all transaction history for the past six months.
According to the Financial Times, the request was made to establish the negotiations between Binance and Nigeria. In the report, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) was also asking the exchange to resolve any outstanding tax liabilities in country. In recent weeks, the Federal Government had clamped down on Binance for allegedly undermining its efforts to stabilise the local currency, the naira.
The debacle between the government and Binance started when the special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said Binance and other crypto platforms should be prohibited from operating in Nigeria.
He alleged that Binance was “blatantly setting exchange rate for Nigeria,” and hijacking the role of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). A few days after Onanuga’s statement, the CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, said $26 billion passed through Binance from unidentified sources. Cardoso said the apex bank, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and security agencies were working together to ensure there is no manipulation in the foreign exchange (FX) market.
On March 8, the crypto firm discontinued all transactions in naira on its exchange platform, following reports that the government demanded $10 billion as retribution for profiting from “its illegal transactions” in Nigeria. In the meantime, the ONSA is requesting that the exchange settle any unpaid tax obligations, according to reports received by the Financial Times.
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