Forex crisis: FG slams $10bln fine on Binance

The Federal Government has fined a crypto trading platform, Binance, $10 billion over allegations of influencing the country’s forex crisis.

The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this on 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 said: “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 harbors a lot of people who fix exchange rates, which impacts the country badly at a time when the government is trying to stabilize the economy.”

Persecondnews recalls that the federal government had said that Binance is not officially registered.

The government has confirmed that Binance is actively collaborating by sharing valuable information and has already halted transactions involving the naira on its platform.

Nigeria is, however, requesting Binance to settle a minimum penalty of $10 billion.

The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) confirmed that “as part of ongoing operations in the foreign exchange market with the CBN and other law enforcement and security agencies, we are coordinating an interagency investigation into the operations of Binance,” Zakari Mijinyawa, head of strategic communication, said.

The Federal Government has allegedly detained at least two senior executives of Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange company.

According to a report, both executives flew into Nigeria last week following a ban on their website and were arrested by officials of the office of the National Security Adviser, and their passports were seized.

Binance is an online exchange where users can trade cryptocurrencies.

Nigeria is one of the largest peer-to-peer crypto markets in the world. Between July 2022 and June 2023, crypto transactions in the country reached $56.7 billion, according to Chainalysis.