The Nigerian government has recently detained two executives of the Binance crypto exchange platform amid efforts to stabilise the nation's foreign exchange market and salvage the value of the local currency.
The two executives flew to Nigeria last week following a ban on their website. They were arrested by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and detained in Abuja; news of the arrest has stirred up several reactions nationwide.
Following the arrest, the Nigerian authorities requested Binance executives to provide data relating to transactions involving the Nigerian Naira on the Binance platform in the last seven years. They also demanded that some other data relating to Nigeria be deleted from the Binance platform.
However, the Binance executives insisted they should be taken to their respective countries' embassies before they could comply.
As of Wednesday, the complete identities of the two Binance executives remain unclear. However, according to multiple reports, one is American, and the other is British-Pakistani.
The Nigerian government has secured a court warrant to detain the officials for at least twelve days in the first instance.
