Amid the clampdown, Binance exited the Nigerian market and discontinued every naira-related transaction on its platform.
President Bola Tinubu’s government has demanded that the world’s largest cryptocurrency platform, Binance, provide a list of the top 100 Nigerian users and their transaction details on the platform before detained officials are released.
“Nigeria is pressing Binance for information on its top 100 users in the country, as well as all transaction history for the past six months,” Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
According to the newspaper, the request is at the centre of negotiations between Binance and Nigeria, which sees the company as a crucial link undermining government efforts to stabilise its currency, the naira. The six-month transaction details request tallies with the timeline of Nigeria’s currency devaluation.
The reported request comes as two Binance officials, Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and British-Kenyan Nadeem Anjarwalla, languish in detention two weeks after Nigerian authorities arrested them.