E52: How Tigran Gambaryan Deciphered Bitcoin and Survived Nigerian Prison

Beyond the Code

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Tigran Gambaryan⁠ spent 8 months in grueling conditions in a Nigerian prison. But that’s not what made him famous.

Episode 52 of Beyond the Code dives into Tigran’s incredible journey. For those of you who don’t know, Tigran started off as an IRS special agent, where he used a simple Excel spreadsheet to reverse engineer the Bitcoin blockchain and track major crypto criminals such as those responsible for the Mt. Gox hack, Welcome to Video, Alpha Bay and Silk Road —earning him the nickname, “the man who broke Bitcoin”. After a decade in Government law enforcement, Tigran took up a pivotal role at Binance leading their financial crimes unit and fostering global regulatory ties. Tigran’s story is one of innovation and grit, as chronicled in Andy Greenberg’s Tracers in the Dark.

But things took a turn for the worse for Tigran when he made a trip to Nigeria last February and what was supposed to be a simple training session spiraled into detention, interrogation, and bribes and imprisonment, exposing systemic corruption. After 8 grueling months in Nigeria’s Kuje prison, through media pressure and U.S. diplomatic efforts, Tigran’s release was finally secured and thankfully he is now home with his family.

Links to videos and articles:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Caa4X7GqTkQ

https://www.wired.com/story/tigran-gambaryan-us-congress-resolution-hostage-nigeria/

https://fmino.gov.ng/disregard-falsehoods-being-peddled-by-tigran-gambaryan-against-nigerian-government-officials-fg/

https://www.wired.com/story/tigran-gambaryan-us-congress-resolution-hostage-nigeria/

https://www.cryptotimes.io/2025/02/14/nigeria-used-binance-as-scapegoat-wanted-150-million-bribe-tigran-gambaryan/

https://x.com/DC_Draino/status/1832182160918503643

For those interested, you can buy Andy Greenberg's book, Tracers in the Dark, on Amazon: https://a.co/d/3umNV17If you want to do it right (chronologically), start with Nick Bilton's book, American Kingpin (https://a.co/d/hTRVY2C), which tells the story of Ross Ulbricht and the Silk Road. These books are imperative to understanding how the space migrated from basically a hub for libertarians, Cypher punks and criminals, into what it is today.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tigran-gambaryan-0852679a/
X: https://x.com/TigranGambaryan

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