Eko Hot Blog reports that the Federal Government has slammed a $10 billion fine on the cryptocurrency trading platform Binance over its role in the free fall of the naira.
This was made known by the Special Adviser to the President On Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in an interview with the BBC on Friday morning.
According to Onanuga, the 10 billion dollar fine was slammed on Binance due to its illegal operations, which contributed hugely to the devaluation of the naira.
He said: “The platform fixes the exchange rate for the country, and it is an illegal rate. The CBN is the only authority that can fix the exchange rate for the country.
“Binance platform harbours people who fix the exchange rate, which quickly affects the Nigerian economy for the time when Nigeria is trying to stabilize the economy.
“Binance staff cooperated with the government to provide information.”
Recall that the Nigerian government had reportedly directed mobile networks to prevent access to Binance platforms.
This forced the cryptocurrency exchange giant to remove the naira from its peer-to-peer feature.
Two employees of Binance were also allegedly detained by the office of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, in Abuja as part of an investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange’s operations in Nigeria.
The arrest of the two officials was the government’s attempt to curb naira speculation and steady its free fall by clamping down on cryptocurrency exchanges.
The retribution claim of the federal government is coming months after Binance pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $4.3 billion to settle criminal money laundering charges levied by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Similarly, the United Kingdom banned the popular crypto exchange platform in 2021.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ruled that Binance cannot conduct any “regulated activity” in the United Kingdom.
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