Herniated disc and handcuffs: Binance exec’s health deteriorates in Nigerian prison

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has called for the release of its employee, Tigran Gambaryan, who has been detained in Nigeria for six months. The company claims his health is deteriorating and accuses the Nigerian government of holding him on baseless charges.

The details 

In a press release shared with Mariblock on August 26, the six-month mark of Gambaryan’s detention, Binance claims the 40-year-old is no longer able to walk due to a herniated disc. 

• Despite a court order to the contrary, Nigerian prison officials are still refusing to release his medical records while he is now being denied access to his consulate representatives. 
• In a separate statement by Gambaryan’s representatives, Mariblock learned that Gambaryan’s lawyers have only been allowed 15 minutes with him since July 26 and are subsequently unable to prepare him for trial. 

Binance, in its defense, has alleged that the Nigerian government is holding Gambaryan on baseless charges. 

• The crypto company isolated itself from Nigeria’s currency issues, naming the removal of the currency peg as the chief cause of the naira’s steep decline. 
• It added that the downward trend has not stopped even after Binance closed its peer-to-peer trading platform in the country. 

In addition, contrary to comments by government authorities, Nigeria has never been a big market for Biannce, the company said. 

• Governor Olayemi Cardoso of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had claimed that Binance made $26 billion from Nigeria in 2023. Binance disputed this, stating its total transaction volume was $21.6 billion, with only a small percentage as profit from transaction fees.
• Additionally, it clarified that users trade the same sum of money multiple times and it still adds up to its total transaction volume despite no new funds coming into its trading platform. 

An application by Gambaryan’s lawyers to have his case heard during the Nigerian court’s ongoing recess was granted, and his next hearing date has been brought forward to September 2, per his representatives.  

Key quote 

• Binance said: 

“Nigeria has never been a big market for Binance.  The Government has said that we made $26 billion in revenue from Nigeria in 2023.  That is not the case. The $21.6 billion 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 [as] transaction fee.” 

Catch up 

• Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, two top officials of Binance, flew into Nigeria on February 26 at the invitation of the Nigerian government.  
• They were subsequently detained, and their passports confiscated. However, while Anjarwalla escaped custody a month later, Gambaryan remained and was subsequently charged.  
• Richard Teng, Binance’s CEO, complained that the Nigerian authorities refuse to release Gambaryan in a bid to manipulate the exchange into doing their bidding. 
• In response, the Nigerian government claimed the exchange has allowed itself to be used to manipulate the country’s currency — the naira — which has seen record devaluation since mid-2023. 
• The country’s national security adviser has also labeled cryptocurrency as a threat to its national security as it continues to crack down on the asset class to stem the naira’s rapid decline. 
• Several US lawmakers have also petitioned the US president, Joe Biden, to intervene and secure Gambaryan’s release, but their appeals have not yielded much as he remains in prison.