Nigeria’s cryptocurrency economy is expanding rapidly, reshaping how millions of people save, trade and transact. With an estimated 22 million users and roughly $59 billion in annual transactions, the country is emerging as Africa’s crypto powerhouse. Driven by stablecoins, cross-border payments and a young digital population, cryptocurrency is evolving from speculative asset into everyday financial infrastructure, reports Associate Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF
When American internet sensation IShowSpeed walked into a jewellery store in Lagos and casually asked whether the dealer accepted USDT, the response came instantly. Minutes later, diamond earrings worth N2.3 million had been paid for entirely in cryptocurrency. The moment travelled across social media at lightning speed after Tether chief executive Paolo Ardoino shared the clip online. To millions of viewers, it looked like another viral celebrity encounter during the streamer’s African tour.
But for millions of Nigerians deeply immersed in the country’s fast-expanding crypto culture, the transaction carried a deeper meaning. It confirmed a reality already taking root across the country. In Nigeria, cryptocurrency is no longer an experimental technology on the fringes; it is steadily becoming part of everyday financial infrastructure. Findings show that in many parts of the world, digital assets remain largely speculative instruments dominated by traders, venture capital firms, and risk-seeking investors chasing volatility. Nigeria’s experience has taken a different path. Here, cryptocurrency is increasingly woven into the fabric of everyday economic life—used for savings, remittances, cross-border trade, freelance payments, business transactions, and as a hedge against inflation.
According to digital finance analysts, what is emerging is not merely a crypto market but the rise of an alternative financial ecosystem operating alongside the traditional banking system. Increasingly, global crypto firms are taking notice. Among them is Swiss hardware wallet maker Tangem, which is intensifying its push into Nigeria and the wider African market, betting that the continent’s largest economy could also become one of the world’s most important crypto consumer hubs.
The rise of Africa’s crypto superpower
Nigeria’s crypto numbers are striking. By 2025, an estimated 22 million Nigerians—roughly 10 per cent of the population—are expected to own or actively use cryptocurrency. A decade ago, the figure was negligible. Today, Nigeria ranks among the world’s largest crypto adoption markets and, by a wide margin, Africa’s most dominant. Between July 2023 and June 2024, Nigerians reportedly moved about $59 billion in on-chain transaction value. More revealing than the scale of activity is its structure. Nearly 85 per cent of transactions were valued below one million dollars, pointing not to heavyweight institutional flows, but to widespread retail usage driven by individuals navigating economic uncertainty. This is what sets Nigeria apart from many Western crypto markets: adoption is not confined to speculation or high-risk trading, but increasingly embedded in everyday financial coping strategies.
For millions of young Nigerians, crypto is less about speculative investment and more about financial survival. Across Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, Ibadan, Enugu, and other major cities, stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are increasingly functioning as informal dollar accounts stored on mobile phones. Pegged to the United States dollar, these assets offer protection against the volatility of most cryptocurrencies while allowing users to preserve value outside the naira.
The appeal is straightforward. Over the past several years, persistent currency depreciation, inflationary pressures, foreign exchange scarcity, and rising living costs have steadily eroded confidence in traditional savings systems. For many Nigerians—particularly those under 30—holding wealth entirely in naira now carries an increasing sense of financial risk.
Stablecoins have emerged as the practical workaround. Freelancers receiving payments from international clients now routinely request settlement in USDT. Small business owners use them to pay overseas suppliers, bypassing banking delays and foreign exchange losses. Software developers, remote workers, online merchants, designers, gamers, and digital creators integrated into the global digital economy increasingly rely on crypto rails to move money quickly and efficiently across borders.
Industry data indicates that stablecoins accounted for roughly 43 per cent of Nigeria’s retail-sized crypto transactions during the review period. In effect, a growing segment of users is no longer treating cryptocurrency as an investment class alone, but as a parallel financial infrastructure—one that sits alongside, and in many cases substitutes for, traditional banking channels.
From prohibition to regulation
Nigeria’s relationship with cryptocurrency has undergone one of the most dramatic policy reversals globally. In 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria barred banks and financial institutions from facilitating crypto-related transactions, citing risks around money laundering, volatility, terrorism financing, and financial instability. The move pushed much of the ecosystem outside formal banking channels.
Rather than reducing activity, the restriction accelerated it. Cut off from banks, users turned to peer-to-peer networks, which rapidly expanded. By mid-2023, Nigeria’s P2P crypto trading volume had risen to about $56.7 billion, making the country one of the world’s largest peer-to-peer crypto markets.
Faced with this reality, authorities shifted stance. In December 2023, banking restrictions were lifted for licensed crypto operators, reopening regulated access between digital assets and the formal financial system. The biggest shift came on April 7, 2025, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the Investments and Securities Act 2025 into law. It formally placed cryptocurrencies, tokenised assets, and NFTs under the Securities and Exchange Commission Nigeria. Taxation soon followed. Under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 and related legislation, crypto gains became taxable income, while corporate platforms faced profit taxes. The message was clear: crypto had moved from the margins into the regulated core of Nigeria’s financial system.
The battle for crypto security and Tangem’s African gamble
It is within this fast-evolving landscape that Tangem sees opportunity. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, the company specialises in hardware wallets designed to simplify crypto storage for mainstream users. Unlike conventional devices that rely on USB connections, desktop interfaces, and complex recovery phrases, Tangem’s product takes the form of a bank card embedded with NFC technology.
Users simply tap the card against a smartphone to access their assets. In Africa’s mobile-first environment, that simplicity is critical. Nigeria’s crypto expansion has been driven largely through smartphones rather than desktop systems or traditional computing infrastructure. Tangem’s card-based design aligns naturally with a generation already accustomed to mobile banking, contactless payments, and app-based financial services. The company says it has produced more than six million wallet cards distributed across over 170 countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa.
Its ambitions in Nigeria are not entirely new. As far back as 2022, a local initiative branded Tangem Africa presented the wallet at the African Financial Market Conference in Abuja. A representative, Osas Asehon, promoted it as a secure alternative at a time when global crypto scams were escalating sharply. The early entry bore the hallmarks of a cautious market strategy: discounted pricing to lower barriers, recruitment of local resellers, and a strong emphasis on security at a moment when billions were being lost globally to crypto fraud.
What became of that initial operation remains unclear. However, the episode underscored a broader reality: global crypto infrastructure companies recognised Nigeria’s strategic importance long before regulatory frameworks fully matured. Today, Tangem is re-entering the market with renewed focus, working through partners such as Savellet and Stealth Money as competition and demand intensify.
As crypto adoption expands, security has become one of the sector’s most pressing challenges. Globally, billions of dollars are lost each year to exchange failures, phishing attacks, hacking incidents, and fraudulent investment schemes. In Nigeria, where many users are first-time entrants into digital finance and operate primarily via smartphones, concerns around custody, recovery, and asset protection are especially acute. Tangem is positioning itself directly within that gap. Its wallet uses EAL6+ security certification, a standard also used in biometric passports and high-grade banking systems. Instead of relying on a single written recovery phrase—often lost or stolen—users are issued multiple cards carrying identical access credentials, reducing the risk of permanent asset loss.
For mobile-first users, the appeal lies in familiarity and ease of use. But Tangem’s ambitions extend beyond storage. In November 2025, the company launched Tangem Pay, a non-custodial payment system embedded within its wallet app. It allows users to spend stablecoins through a virtual Visa card linked to Apple Pay and Google Pay, effectively bridging crypto balances with traditional payment networks. The service currently operates in selected markets across the United States, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific, but Africa remains a strategic priority. If introduced in Nigeria, it could allow users to spend stablecoins directly at Visa-accepting merchants, collapsing the gap between digital assets and everyday commerce. For a market already deeply embedded in crypto usage, that shift could redefine the boundary between banking, payments, and decentralised finance.
The campus generation
Crypto companies understand something crucial about Nigeria: the market is overwhelmingly young. More than half of Nigeria’s crypto users are reportedly under 30. University students now represent one of the fastest-growing segments of adoption, driven by digital literacy, unemployment pressures, online entrepreneurship, and exposure to global internet culture. Tangem, like many global crypto firms, is actively targeting this demographic. Through initiatives such as Tangem Academy and Tangem Campus, the company is expanding crypto education through workshops, campus partnerships, and beginner-focused programmes designed to simplify blockchain concepts for first-time users. The emphasis is less on technical depth and more on accessibility—how to make digital assets understandable and usable in everyday life.
Across Nigeria and the wider continent, universities are increasingly becoming key arenas for crypto adoption. Industry players regularly host seminars, trading competitions, developer workshops, and blockchain events in institutions from Lagos to Nairobi and Pretoria. The strategy reflects a broader recognition that Africa’s youthful population may define the next phase of global crypto expansion. In Nigeria, where youth unemployment and currency instability strongly influence financial behaviour, crypto is often viewed not just as technology, but as opportunity.
Nigeria’s crypto story is therefore no longer confined to innovation alone. It now intersects with broader structural questions around monetary sovereignty, financial inclusion, youth employment, taxation, cross-border commerce, and the future architecture of African finance. The ecosystem sits at the intersection of necessity and experimentation. Millions of Nigerians entered crypto not primarily out of ideological belief in decentralisation, but because conventional systems frequently failed to meet everyday needs. Delayed transfers, foreign exchange restrictions, inflationary pressure, and payment frictions created demand for alternatives.
Crypto stepped into that gap. Therefore, the image of a global streamer casually purchasing jewellery with USDT in Lagos resonated far beyond entertainment value. To many outsiders it appeared futuristic; to many Nigerians, it increasingly reflects a lived reality. The transaction symbolised how digital assets are becoming normalised in everyday commerce rather than remaining confined to speculation. What is emerging is larger than a technology trend or market cycle. It is the gradual formation of a parallel financial culture—built on smartphones, stablecoins, peer-to-peer networks, and decentralised systems adapting in real time to economic pressure.
The regulatory environment, however, remains fluid. Tax enforcement challenges persist, government positions may continue to evolve, and concerns around fraud, volatility, and consumer protection remain significant. Yet the overall trajectory is becoming harder to ignore. In a country where an estimated one in ten citizens already engages with cryptocurrency, where stablecoins increasingly function as informal savings instruments, and where billions move outside traditional banking rails each year, Nigeria is no longer simply participating in Africa’s crypto economy. It is helping define its direction.
QUOTE
By 2025, an estimated 22 million Nigerians—roughly 10 per cent of the population—are expected to own or actively use cryptocurrency. Today, Nigeria ranks among the world’s largest crypto adoption markets and, by a wide margin, Africa’s most dominant. Between July 2023 and June 2024, Nigerians reportedly moved about $59 billion in on-chain transaction value.
