The federal government has imposed a $10 billion fine on the crypto trading platform, Binance, citing accusations of influencing the country’s forex crisis, The Global News reports.
Bayo Onanuga, the special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on information and strategy made this known on Friday in an interview with the BBC.
According to the President’s aide, Binance accrued significant profits from its “illegal transactions” in Nigeria, while the nation incurred substantial losses.
He stated that Binance is not registered in Nigeria and has no presence in the country.
Onanuga alleged that individuals utilized the platform to arbitrarily manipulate dollar-naira exchange rates, a practice he asserted had adverse effects on the value of the local currency.
The Special Adviser elaborated that the Binance team was actively collaborating with the Nigerian government by supplying pertinent information and had already halted naira-related transactions on the platform.
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 harbours a lot of people who fix exchange rates which impacted the country badly at a time when the government is trying to stabilize the economy.”
Onanuga added that Binance influenced the increase in foreign exchange rates through currency speculations which made the Naira value to fall by almost 70% in recent months.