By
Chimamanda U. Martha
May 3rd, 2024
The Nigerian government has been pushing the Binance crypto exchange to pay as much as $10B for the significant economic disruption caused.
The supremacy battle between Nigeria and leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance Holdings Ltd, has significantly impacted the exchange operations in the country. With the Nigerian Naira getting devalued against the US dollar at a fast rate, currently exchanging at around 1075 for one US dollar, the government has ramped up its crackdown against unregistered crypto companies.
Starting with Binance, which had the lion’s share, Nigeria has made several moves to get the attention of the company’s top executives.
As Coinspeaker recently reported, the Nigerian government has been working on prosecuting two top executives – Nadeem Anjarwalla, and Tigran Gambaryan- from Binance. The Nigerian government accused the duo of enabling money laundering of up to $26 billion, among other charges.
However, the charges of the duo were cut short last month after Anjarwalla managed to escape from police custody during the Ramadan festival. According to local media outlets, the Nigerian government has been working with the international criminal police organization (INTERPOL) to extradite Anjarwalla from Kenya.
No Turning Back for Binance Executives
Binance’s top executives have been negotiating with the Nigerian government on the release of the detained officials. Furthermore, the Nigerian government is ostensibly seeking a fine of about $10 billion from Binance, even higher than the $4.3 billion from the US government.
As a result, Binance officials have resulted in a different approach in solving the case by fleeing its detained employees forcefully.
Anjarwalla, a Kenyan-British citizen, ostensibly used a Middle East airline to flee Nigeria and left his British passport with the local authorities. As the Nigerian government indicated that Anjarwalla could be extradited from Kenya within the week, reports on the ground indicated otherwise.
According to the spokesperson for Anjarwalla’s wife, the reports of arrest in Kenya and incoming extradition are false. Binance is yet to issue an official statement on the matter as it focuses on growing its global market.
Market Picture
Binance, through its native Web3 chain BSC, has continued to grow amid the confirmed crypto bull run. According to the latest market data, the BSC network is the third largest web3 chain, with a total value locked (TVL) of about $6.75 billion. Additionally, the BSC network has nearly $5 billion in stablecoins market cap.
Some of the top-tier web3 projects on the Binance ecosystem include PancakeSwap (CAKE) and Venus lending platform.
Meanwhile, Binance’s native coin BNB has been on a rising trend since the recent bullish breakout. The large-cap altcoin, with a fully diluted valuation of about $92 billion, traded around $599 on Monday during the early New York session.
From a technical standpoint, BNB price is on the cusp of a major bullish uproar in the coming weeks fueled by increased regulatory compliance and market adoption.
