Share this article
Nigeria Government Demands $10B From Crypto Exchange Binance: BBC
A spokesperson for the president later denied an amount had been set, People's Gazette reported.
Updated Mar 8, 2024, 10:29 p.m. Published Mar 1, 2024, 3:53 p.m.
- Binance set an unofficial exchange rate and contributed to economic disruption in Nigeria, a presidential spokesperson said.
- The presidential spokesperson denied an amount had been set, People's Gazette reported later.
- The news of a potential fine follows the detention earlier this week of two Binance executives who had arrived in the country.
Nigeria's government has demanded $10 billion from Binance after central bank Governor Olayemi Cardoso said the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume had enabled $26 billion of untraceable funds to leave the country as it faces a foreign exchange crisis and is looking for ways to restrict capital outflows, the BBC reported.
The fine was levied because of the exchange's alleged illegal operations in the country, Bayo Onanuga, a spokesperson for President Bola Tinubu, told the BBC's pidgin language service on Friday. The exchange is setting an exchange rate for the Nigerian naira when only the central bank has that authority, Onanuga said.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Onanuga subsequently told Nigerian news service Peoples Gazette his comments had been misrepresented.
“I said our government may impose heavy fines on Binance for what happened,” Onanuga told the Gazette. “I never said Binance had been informed about the fines or that it would definitely be $10 billion. I only said the amount may be imposed, which is because nothing has been finalized yet.”
Nigerian authorities say Binance, which isn't registered to operate in the country, caused widespread economic disruption and contributed to the naira's 70% weakening in recent months, the BBC reported.
On Wednesday, two Binance executives were reportedly detained and their passports confiscated when they flew to Nigeria.
The country has been investigating crypto exchanges, the Financial Times reported recently.
Neither Binance nor the Nigerian government had responded to requests for comment before publication.
Sizin için daha fazlası
Bilinmesi gerekenler:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
Sizin için daha fazlası
CFTC's acting chief Pham poised to go to crypto firm MoonPay once Mike Selig lands
The leader of the derivatives regulator is planning to join the crypto industry as the CFTC and other federal regulators work on policies to benefit the sector.
Bilinmesi gerekenler:
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairman Caroline Pham confirmed again that she's heading to crypto firm MoonPay when the Senate confirms her replacement and he's sworn in.
- President Donald Trump's CFTC chair nominee Mike Selig was set for a Senate vote Wednesday evening, according to that chamber's schedule.
- Selig, currently an SEC official, would arrive at the CFTC just as several of Pham's crypto initiatives have gone live.
Top Stories
