The news
- Some of the frozen crypto wallets traced to suspected #EndBadGovernance protesters are on the KuCoin and MEXC exchanges.
- The wallets, which reportedly have more than $37 million, are still performing transactions and are very much active.
- Per Premium Times, the ruling to freeze the wallets was given on July 9, 2024, by Judge Emeka Nwite, however, the information after a wallet scan reveals they might still be active.
A scan of the wallet addresses by Techpoint Africa as of press time revealed that some of the wallets are still performing transactions or had a wrong balance.
One of the wallets, which is supposed to have a balance of $967, according to court documents, had a balance of $172.
Similarly, another with a balance of $443,512 on the court proceedings had $233,574 according to blockchain data. Interestingly, the wallet is linked to global crypto firm KuCoin and has been sending and receiving thousands of dollars in transactions.
One of the transactions included an outward transfer of $50,000 to an unknown wallet which also sent the funds out to another wallet immediately.
While the identity of the owners of these wallets was not revealed, the crypto exchanges that are custodians of the wallets may have shared information about the wallet owners with authorities.
A crypto forensic expert who spoke with Techpoint Africa said that "when the government suspects that crime proceeds are in a wallet, they can write to the exchanges to support the investigation."
However, he noted that the government cannot source for data from exchanges for selfish reasons as exchanges will often decline the government's requests.
In this case, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which requested the wallets to be frozen said that they were being investigated for offences of money laundering and terrorism financing.
But insiders told Premium Times that the wallet owners were suspected organisers of the #EndBadGovernance protests.
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This is not far-fetched as cryptocurrencies became an alternative after the government blocked bank accounts during the #ENDSARS protest of 2020.
Nigerian fintech, Flutterwave, which contributed ₦2 million to the cause, was reportedly called in for questioning by the Central Bank of Nigeria. Although the company denied news, Feminist Coalition, a major financer of the protest, had their account disabled and decided to turn to crypto.
However, if the government decides to clamp down on cryptocurrency platforms financing protests, it remains to be seen how they will freeze private and non-custodial wallets.
