The Nigerian government has approached the cryptocurrency exchange Binance with a demand to provide data on the top one hundred users in the country and their transaction history for the past six months. This request is related to the period of devaluation of the national currency, the Nigerian Naira. Additionally, Nigerian authorities are interested in regulating potential tax obligations for Binance. As a result, two employees of the exchange, Tigran Gambarian and Nadim Anjarwalla, were detained for 14 days, the term of which expired on March 12, with upcoming hearings on extending the detention.

Despite the absence of official charges, they are being held as "hostages," while providing good treatment to avoid an international incident, considering that the detainees are citizens of the United States and the United Kingdom. Binance is working on the return of its employees, but communication with them was lost after the confiscation of passports and mobile phones.

This is happening against the backdrop of an investigation into the influence of cryptocurrency exchanges on the Nigerian economy, as a result of which access to the platforms of Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken has been blocked. According to the local central bank, $26 billion has passed through Binance in a year, the source of which cannot be precisely determined. Earlier, there were reports of authorities demanding the exchange to compensate $10 billion for manipulating the Naira exchange rate, but this information was refuted.

Additionally, the House Committee on Financial Crimes has demanded that Binance CEO Richard Teng appear to give testimony on allegations of financing terrorism and money laundering.