The Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026, signed in Abuja under Section 5 of Nigeria's 1999 Constitution, creates a Virtual Asset Council chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) serve as vice-chairs. The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and the Office of the National Security Adviser round out the membership. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, announced the signing in an official press release.

The order does not create a new regulator or strip existing agencies of their powers. Instead, it installs a coordination layer above them. SEC retains authority over virtual assets classified as securities. CBN continues to oversee assets used for payments, settlement, and custody. An operational secretariat called the Virtual Asset Office, housed at the CBN, will manage information sharing across agencies through a shared supervisory technology platform. The council has 30 days from signing, roughly until August 16, to produce a Harmonised Implementation Framework spelling out how agencies will work together in practice.

The official press release described the order as designed "to close these gaps through supervisory coordination, without introducing new layers of regulation or displacing the mandates of existing agencies." Three companion measures were announced alongside the order: the CBN will launch a regulatory sandbox for controlled testing of virtual asset products; NRS will publish tax guidance clarifying how existing law applies to the sector; and the federal government is finalising a Virtual Assets White Paper to set longer-term policy direction. Seven firms had already been admitted to SEC's separate Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme ahead of the signing, a distinct initiative from the newly announced CBN sandbox.

The order arrives after nearly a decade of inconsistent policy toward crypto in Nigeria. The CBN warned banks away from virtual currencies as early as 2017 and issued a hard ban on banks servicing crypto exchanges in 2021. That ban was lifted in late 2023. The legislative foundation shifted meaningfully in March 2025, when the Investments and Securities Act (ISA 2025) was signed into law, formally classifying digital assets as securities and giving SEC statutory enforcement powers over the sector, including the ability to audit firms, impose penalties, suspend operations, and remove executives from crypto firms. A crypto tax framework took effect on January 1, 2026, under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025.

The regulatory gap this order targets became especially visible during Nigeria's 2024 confrontation with Binance. CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso accused the exchange of facilitating roughly $26 billion in illicit financial flows through Nigeria, and Nigerian tax authorities sought an $81 billion penalty the company contested in court. Two Binance executives were detained in Abuja on money laundering and tax evasion charges; one fled, and the other, Tigran Gambaryan, remained imprisoned until diplomatic intervention by the United States secured his release in October 2024. Nigeria's National Security Adviser also designated crypto trading a national security matter during that crisis, a determination that helps explain why the Office of the National Security Adviser holds a seat on the new council. As recently as April 2026, the CBN maintained that Binance had conducted "hidden operations" in the country. That case remains unresolved.

The scale of Nigeria's crypto market makes the coordination problem consequential. According to Chainalysis data covering a 12-month period measured through mid-2025, Nigeria received approximately $92.1 billion in on-chain crypto volume and ranked sixth globally on the firm's adoption index. An estimated 26.3 million Nigerians hold or use crypto, with Bitcoin accounting for 76 percent of holdings. Stablecoins account for 43 percent of retail transactions in the country, and 85 percent of retail trades fall below $1 million in value, indicating a market driven heavily by everyday users rather than institutional flows.

Nigeria's move fits a broader pattern across Anglophone sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa introduced mandatory licensing for crypto asset service providers in June 2023. Kenya passed a Virtual Asset Service Provider Act in October 2025. Ghana launched a co-regulatory registration mandate in August 2025, with more than 100 firms now registered. Nigeria's model, preserving agency mandates while layering cross-agency coordination on top, offers a practical template for other large emerging economies managing the same multi-regulator problem.

The near-term test is whether the Virtual Asset Council delivers a credible implementation framework before the August deadline. For exchanges and Web3 developers operating in Nigeria, the clarity of that document will determine whether the executive order translates into reduced compliance risk or remains largely aspirational.