Nigeria’s Cryptocurrency Investors In Dilemma Following Arrest Of Binance Executives

Local investors in cryptocurrency in Nigeria and stakeholders were in dilemma on Wednesday evening as news filtered out that two visiting executives of Binance were arrested by the government.

The two senior executives at Binance according to Reuters were detained in what was being seen as the increasing crackdown by the administration on cryptocurrency exchanges.

GWG.ng reports that the move followed what has been seen as the crackdown on registered and unregistered traders of foreign currencies across the country.

According to Reuters, the Binance executives flew to Nigeria following the country’s decision to ban several cryptocurrency trading websites last week but they were detained by the office of the country’s national security adviser and their passports seized.

Binance has not responded to the arrest of its executives in Nigeria.

The crackdown follows a period after several cryptocurrency websites emerged as platforms of choice for trading the Nigerian currency, which has suffered chronic dollar shortages.

The naira’s official exchange rate has been trading at levels close to the parallel market level after the currency was devalued last month, its second adjustment in less than a year.

Africa’s largest economy has been experiencing crippling dollar shortages that have pushed its currency to record lows after foreign investors fled following a previous oil price collapse and introduction of capital controls in 2015, Reuters reported.

GWG.ng reports that the news that the Binance executives were arrested came a day after the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr Olayemi Cardoso said during his first post Monetary Policy Committee, MPC meeting that more than $25 billion passed through Binance last year.

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