In the course of an extensive investigation into Binance, the Federal High Court of Nigeria has demanded that Binance provide all transaction data of Nigerian citizens on its platform.
Not stopping at requesting information from the top 100 users, the Nigerian government recently ordered Binance to supply detailed transaction information of all Nigerian citizens to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
This order was issued to Binance amidst efforts by the country to clamp down on the exchange’s operations. Nigeria blames the exchange for causing economic instability as citizens convert Naira fiat currency to cryptocurrency.
A court statement, sworn by an EFCC official, stated:
“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has discovered that some users are using this platform to exchange and manipulate prices, which has caused significant market instability and devalued the Naira against other currencies.”
As a consequence, Binance has ceased all services in Nigeria and delisted all trading pairs involving the Nigerian Naira.
To intensify the investigation into Binance, the Nigerian government has even detained two senior Binance managers with no signs of release. Binance’s website in Nigeria has also been blocked. Additionally, the Nigerian authorities have shown strictness towards the cryptocurrency market in general by proposing a 400% increase in registration fees for cryptocurrency companies.
It remains unclear whether Binance has complied with the data collection order from the Nigerian government. Meanwhile, the exchange recently celebrated its assets held on the platform surpassing the $100 billion mark for the first time.