The News
Nigerian authorities have moved to freeze millions of dollars of value held in cryptocurrency wallets, which media reports say is an attempt to cut funding to a protest movement.
The move marks an escalation in a year-long crackdown on crypto use since Nigeria’s central bank alleged in February that crypto platforms enabled money flows through the country from unidentifiable sources.
In a Tuesday briefing to a government council chaired by President Bola Tinubu, National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu said his office initiated action to freeze $38 million held as crypto in digital wallets. The accounts allegedly received donations in support of nationwide cost of living protests that were held at the beginning of this month, local media outlets reported.
A separate report by Premium Times detailed screengrabs of what it purports to be a court order in Nigeria’s capital Abuja authorizing EFCC, Nigeria’s financial crimes investigator, to freeze four wallets holding about 37 million USDT, a stablecoin valued at par with the dollar. The wallets “are owned by individuals being investigated for offences of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing,” the EFCC said according to the purported court order.
It is not clear when the agency began its investigation of the wallets’ owners. The order to freeze did not specify a connection to the protests and was granted on Aug. 9, the protests’ penultimate day. An EFCC spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Semafor Africa.
In this article:
Know More
Nigeria’s crackdown has included shutting off user access to crypto websites and trading platforms, and the arrest of staffers of Binance, one of the world’s largest crypto companies. Authorities have said crypto trading fueled a sharp weakening of the naira currency earlier this year.
Some doubt has been raised as to the content of the crypto wallets targeted by Nigerian authorities.
Two reports on Wednesday argued that two of the wallets contained less crypto than the EFCC’s court order stipulated and that they remained active, while a third wallet was non-existent. KuCoin, a crypto trading exchange that suspended its peer-to-peer service in Nigeria in May and reported by technology publication Techpoint as the owner of one of the four wallets, could not be reached for comment.
Alexander’s view
Nigeria’s latest action against crypto holders is not surprising given the government’s tone all year, but its overlap with cost of living protests suggests a broader security anxiety within government circles.
Despite veiled threats by the army and police to discourage the protests, residents across the country marched earlier this month against the soaring prices of food and other essentials. The protests did not quite last for the scheduled 10-day period as intensity faded after the first few days. Security forces used tear gas and live ammunition on protesters. At least six people were reportedly killed on the first day of demonstrations.
The specter of Russian flags being flown in northern states, where incidents of looting of stores were also attributed to protesters, appears to have evoked a determination to identify and punish leading actors of the protests. Targeting funding sources is one way to do so, as the authorities did in 2020 during protests against police brutality known as #EndSARS.
Notable
- Tigran Gambaryan, an American Binance official who has been detained in Nigeria since February, is on trial for money laundering charges after a tax evasion charge was dropped. His health is rapidly declining, according to his family.