Binance, the world's leading cryptocurrency exchange, has ceased its operations involving the Nigerian naira. Two Binance executives, including an American citizen, were invited to Nigeria for discussions with government officials about the relationship between cryptocurrency and the Nigerian economy. However, these executives were detained in Abuja in late February and are currently under house arrest.
In a statement on its website, Binance announced that it phased out naira services in early March. The exchange stopped accepting naira deposits on March 5 and delisted naira spot trading pairs on March 7. Any remaining naira balances were converted to USDT by Binance.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Nigerians have increasingly turned to cryptocurrencies as a safeguard against rising inflation and currency devaluation. However, in February, the Nigerian government restricted access to several crypto platforms, including Binance.
Subsequently, the Nigerian government invited two Binance executives for a meeting with officials but detained them in Abuja instead. The detained executives are Tigran Gambaryan, an American citizen, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, a national of both the U.K. and Kenya. Despite not being charged with any crimes, Gambaryan and Anjarwalla remain under detention in Nigeria with limited supervised access to their phones.
The Nigerian government has yet to publicly discuss its detention of the two executives. Bayo Onanuga, an adviser to the Nigerian president, told media outlets that Binance has been cooperating with government officials and there have been discussions about "compensation" to Nigeria. A spokesperson from Binance said: "We are working collaboratively with Nigerian authorities to bring Nadeem and Tigran back home safely to their families. We trust there will be a swift resolution to this matter."
As of publication time, the U.S. State Department had not responded to requests for comment from Federal Newswire regarding this issue.
Gambaryan joined Binance in 2021 as the company's vice president of Global Intelligence and Investigations, according to information on Binance's website. Prior to this, Gambaryan spent a decade serving as a special agent for the Internal Revenue Service—Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Cyber Crimes Unit in Washington, D.C. During his tenure with the IRS, Gambaryan led several multi-billion dollar cyber investigations, including those into Silk Road and the Mt. Gox hack.
Binance was launched in 2017, according to CoinMarketCap. As of August 2022, Binance had a daily trading volume of approximately $76 billion, making it the largest crypto exchange globally. The platform lists more than 350 tokens and enables users to buy, sell, and store digital assets.
