Nigeria's Tinubu Creates Virtual Asset Council to Regulate Crypto
In brief
- President Tinubu signed an executive order July 17 establishing a Virtual Asset Council to coordinate crypto regulation across Nigeria's financial agencies.
- Virtual Asset Council chaired by CBN with SEC and Nigeria Revenue Service as members, tasked with producing unified framework in 30 days.
- Executive order establishes regulatory sandbox for crypto products and targets fraud, money laundering, and terrorism financing prevention.
Unified Framework in 30 Days
The Virtual Asset Council is chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria, with the Nigeria Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission among its supporting members. The council has 30 days from the signing date to produce a harmonized implementation framework covering the full virtual asset ecosystem.
The order divides regulatory responsibilities along functional lines. The SEC takes charge of securities-related virtual asset activities, while the CBN handles non-securities services, which covers most of the payment and transfer activity that dominates everyday crypto use in Nigeria. This structure avoids creating a new standalone regulator — the executive order does not create a new standalone regulator or strip any existing agency of its statutory powers.
Sandbox and Enforcement
The order calls for a regulatory sandbox, a controlled environment where new products and services can be tested under regulatory supervision. This mechanism aims to encourage innovation while maintaining oversight.
On the enforcement side, the order is explicitly framed around curbing fraud, money laundering, and terrorism financing. The move comes after years of regulatory friction between Nigerian authorities and the crypto industry. In 2021, Nigerian authorities instructed banks to close accounts linked to crypto exchanges, effectively cutting off banking access for traders and platforms. More recently, Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by volume, ran into a high-profile standoff with Nigerian authorities in 2024 that resulted in the detention of one of its executives.
The executive order signals a shift toward structured engagement rather than outright restriction. By tasking existing agencies with coordinated oversight and establishing a clear implementation timeline, the framework attempts to bring Nigeria's large crypto user base into a regulated ecosystem while preserving banking relationships.
