Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has secured an order from the Federal High Court to freeze N548.6 million in bank accounts belonging to suspected crypto users on platforms like ByBit, KuCoin, and others, based on their alleged role in naira fluctuations.
The motion, dated September 3, 2024, which the court relied on to freeze the funds, casts a fresh spotlight on major foreign crypto platforms, ByBit and KuCoin, accusing them of aiding the devaluation of the Nigerian currency.
This development is part of a broader prosecutorial and legal campaign by federal government agencies to address alleged foreign exchange violations and tax evasion by foreign cryptocurrency platforms.
An EFCC investigator, Okoro Philip, stated in his affidavit, that over the past few months, Nigeria experienced considerable gains in currency stabilization efforts by the Federal Government, as evidenced by the dollar trading at N980 to $1 on the black market.
He added that these gains were swiftly reversed on Thursday, April 18, 2024, when the dollar surged from N1,250 to $1 on the parallel market.
He said further investigation and intelligence indicated that “these fluctuations were primarily driven by activities on platforms such as ByBit, KuCoin, and other similar cryptocurrency platforms.”
He stated that 22 bank accounts, domiciled in various Nigerian banks and described in the motion, belong to willing sellers of USDT, who provide their naira accounts to transfer the naira equivalent of the USDT.
He contended that the identified account holders are users of ByBit, KuCoin, and other foreign cryptocurrency platforms, who are not authorized to deal in foreign exchange, advertise, negotiate, or carry out cryptocurrency exchanges to naira and vice versa at rates detrimental to Nigeria’s financial system.
The prosecution accused the cryptocurrency platforms of deliberately ignoring the mandatory requirements under Nigeria’s anti-money laundering laws and regulations, enabling users of the platforms to operate under a cover of secrecy.