Forex Crisis: Nigerian Government Fines Binance $10 Billion

Binance has been fined $10 billion by the Nigerian government as its crackdown on the cryptocurrency exchange platform gets more intense.

The announcement coincides with frantic efforts to preserve the value of the Naira, the country's currency.

In an interview with the BBC on Friday, Bayo Onanuga, President Bola Tinubu's Special Advisor on Information and Strategy, disclosed this.

Onanuga claims that while Nigeria sustained enormous losses, Binance made significant profits from its “illegal transactions” there.

He asserted that the cryptocurrency platform is not present or registered in Nigeria and that users have fixed dollar-naira exchange rates on it at will.

Onanuga made hints that the Binance team had already stopped naira-related transactions on the platform and was working with the Nigerian government by giving helpful information.

The presidential spokesman also said on Channels Television's Politics Today programme on Wednesday.

 “If we don't clamp down on Binance, Binance will destroy the economy of this country. They just fix the rate.” 

Also Read: Forex Crisis: Binance Disables The Naira Feature On Its P2P Market

Amidst the crackdown, Binance had traveled to Nigeria earlier in the week to engage in negotiations with the government. But because Binance representatives refused to agree to some of the demands made by the Nigerian government, the meetings came to a standstill.

It was also alleged that they ran a billion-dollar company without the necessary licenses and records

A source with knowledge of the situation claims that the Nigerian government also obtained a court warrant to initially detain the officials for at least twelve days.

Nevertheless, according to Mr. Onanuga, Nigeria demands that Binance pay at least $10 billion in retaliation.