Binance’s CEO, Richard Teng, has denied the allegations by the Nigerian government, which claimed that the platform was responsible for the decline of the Naira. He stated that the allegations are not backed by any evidence, arguing that the Naira had been trading within a narrow range between 2021 and the end of 2022.
“Between 2021 and the end of 2022, the Naira traded between a relatively narrow range of USD1: 380 to USD1: 440. We have been offering P2P services as a value-added service for our users wishing to get exposure to crypto during that period of time. The end of the Naira’s currency peg by the Government in June 2023 caused the biggest fall in Naira’s history according to experts. It went from USD1: 460 in June 2023 to USD1: 900 by the end of 2023. The downward trend continued since. The Naira traded at a recent low of USD1: 1,660 on 31 July 2024, representing a 50% decline from the start of 2024.”
Binance says the downward trend of the Naira has continued even after the platform stopped offering P2P services in Nigeria. He further stated that Nigeria was Never a big market for Binance even though the government said the platform made $26 billion in revenue in the country in 2023. Binance denies this clarifying that the $21.6bn figure is the total transaction volume from 2023.
“To provide an understanding of transaction volume: if a person were to take $1000 and trade it 1000 times, that would represent $1m in transaction volume. Our actual revenue is based on charging a small percentage of transaction fee and we are proud to offer our users some of the lowest transaction fees of any exchange globally.”
Arrest of Tigran Gambaryan
Earlier this year, the Nigerian government arrested two Binance executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla. The government detained them accusing Binance of tax evasion and money laundering. Anjarwalla avoided detention by escaping but Tigran was not so lucky and has appeared in court a few times.
Binance is asking for the release of Tigran saying his physical and mental conditions have deteriorated. “He is in severe pain and unable to walk due to a herniated disc. Despite his conditions, the Nigerian government has refused adequate medical care, including basic needs such as providing access to a wheelchair. Furthermore, they are refusing to provide access to his legal counsel, despite a trial commencing on 2 September, which we have been informed is unconstitutional in Nigeria. A court has demanded the government release Tigran’s medical records but after several months, they have still not complied. This week Tigran was denied access to his US consulate representative. These actions are inexplicable,” said Richard Teng.
“There is no need to imprison an innocent employee to answer for any allegations against Binance. We have settled issues in countries around the world, including the US, Thailand, and most recently in Brazil and India, in a reasonable, collaborative and amicable manner with governments. All these were done without threat or harm inflicted to any of our employees. This is no good reason to hold an innocent employee to advance the discussion of outstanding issues,” added Richard Teng.
The Nigerian government is yet to respond to this resuest by Richard Teng and we will be following closely to see how things turn out.
Also Read: Noah Perlman Speaks on Building a Culture of Compliance at Binance
