World’s largest cryptocurrency trade platform, Binance, says the federal government must release its employee, Tigran Gambaryan, before it can continue meaningful negotiations with it.

In a statement sent to Peoples Gazette on Tuesday, Richard Teng, CEO of Binance, lamented prolonged detention of Mr Gambaryan, calling for his release.

He said, “Let Tigran go home to his family, and then Binance will work through the same process that we have done with Nigeria’s law enforcement community voluntarily more than 600 times in the past. We will always work to protect innocent users, and bad actors are not welcome on our platform. We will work tirelessly with public and private partners to remove them. Furthermore, we will continue engagement with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service on resolving potential historic tax liabilities.”

Expressing disappointment in the federal government’s holding of its employee in detention since February 26th despite its willingness to cooperate with it, Mr Teng said Mr Gambaryan must be released for progress to be made on the issue.

“It remains unclear to me as to why this is not a solution to which the Nigerian government officials are willing to agree. The Nigerian government has extraordinary power to determine the future of Binance and the broader crypto industry within its borders,” Mr Teng said.

He added that, “At the end of the day, Binance wants to have a future where we work alongside the Nigerian government to be part of building a strong economy for the Nigerian people. But this crisis must come to a resolution quickly, and Tigran must be allowed to go home if we’re going to move forward.”

In recent times, the federal government has clamped down on cryptocurrency platforms and Bureau De Change operators nationwide based on the belief that their operations hurt the naira.

Binance subsequently disabled its P2P function, exited the Nigerian market, after it website was blocked to Nigerian users by the federal government in February.

In the same month, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, also ambushed and arrested two Binance officials, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla, while on an official visit to Nigeria.

Mr Anjarwalla, Binance’s Africa regional manager, escaped from the NSA custody on March 22 and fled the country, while Mr Gambaryan remains in custody facing trial.