Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed new rules that would give it authority to approve new digital and virtual asset operators, set governance requirements, and obtain deeper visibility into transactions, wallets, and the movement of digital assets into and out of the country.

The proposed rules, issued on Thursday, would require cryptocurrency businesses targeting Nigerian users to register with the SEC, even if they operate from outside Nigeria. The framework covers exchanges, custodians, virtual asset service providers (VASPs), tokenisation platforms, and digital-asset offering platforms.

The extraterritorial registration requirement addresses a market where Nigerian users have long relied on offshore platforms. Nigeria has repeatedly ranked among the top countries in Chainalysis' Global Crypto Adoption Index, which measures grassroots cryptocurrency use, and the sector's relationship with the state has at times been tense: in 2024, authorities restricted access to several crypto exchange platforms and detained two Binance executives, one of whom was held for around eight months before his release.

The proposal represents a significant expansion of the SEC's approach to crypto regulation in Nigeria. It moves beyond simply admitting virtual asset businesses into a sandbox framework and instead sets operating rules intended to closely supervise how firms operate, move customer assets, and interact with the wider financial system. One of the central themes of the proposal is transaction monitoring.

Under the draft rules, several virtual asset businesses would face higher operating costs. Exchanges and digital asset custodians would each be required to hold minimum capital of ₦2 billion ($1.5 million), while VASPs would need ₦200 million ($148,400).

Digital asset platform operators (DAPOs), such as token issuers; digital asset offering platforms (DAOPs), including companies that provide platforms for token issuance; and real-world asset tokenisation platforms (RATOPs) would each need to maintain minimum capital of ₦500 million ($371,000).

Ancillary virtual asset providers (AVASPs), which supply technological infrastructure for virtual asset businesses, are no longer included in the proposed rules. The category previously carried a minimum capital requirement of ₦300 million ($222,600) under the SEC's revised guidelines issued in March.

Digital asset exchanges would be required to pay a ₦30 million ($22,270) registration fee, while VASPs would pay ₦15 million ($11,130). However, the larger change lies in the amount of information crypto companies would have to provide to the regulator.

The SEC could require regulated firms to provide application programming interface (API)-based or other electronic access to operational, transactional, financial, wallet, custody, and settlement data.

Digital asset firms would also have to identify and report transactions involving Nigerian residents and cross-border flows, including wallet addresses, transaction values, timestamps, and counterparty information. Those disclosure requirements echo the Financial Action Task Force's "travel rule", the international standard requiring virtual asset service providers to pass originator and beneficiary information between counterparties during transfers.

"The Commission may refuse to register an applicant where the Commission is not satisfied with the applicant's information, governance, ownership, financial condition, operational model, technology, risk controls, compliance arrangements, regulatory status or ability to comply with these rules," the SEC said in the proposed rules.

Exchange operators would face additional requirements. Customer assets could not be freely mixed with company funds, and related-party custody arrangements would require a separately incorporated and regulated custodian.

The SEC is also seeking to bring more of crypto's newer business models into its regulatory perimeter. Staking, lending, yield products, liquidity pools, peer-to-peer (P2P) and over-the-counter (OTC) trading, and non-custodial wallet services are all explicitly covered in the proposed framework. Bringing P2P trading inside the perimeter is notable: since the Central Bank of Nigeria barred banks from servicing crypto exchanges in 2021 — a prohibition lifted in December 2023 — peer-to-peer channels have carried much of the country's crypto activity.

The proposal follows the SEC's recent push to bring more virtual asset companies into its Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP). Twelve firms have been admitted since July and are on track to receive approvals-in-principle. That pace marks an acceleration from 2025, when new admissions slowed.

Under the new framework, the SEC said ARIP approval-in-principle would last two years but would not amount to full registration. It would also come with restricted operating scopes and enhanced supervision.

The draft rules also land within a broader build-out of Nigeria's digital-asset policy. The Nigeria Tax Act 2025, signed into law in June 2025, subjects gains on the disposal of digital assets to a 10% capital gains tax from January 2026. In July 2025, Nigeria's regulators issued guidelines permitting tokenised securities, including government bonds, to be issued on public blockchains, and regulators have cleared the naira-backed cNGN stablecoin, which launched in August 2025. The final form of the registration, capital, and data-sharing requirements will determine the compliance obligations for firms operating in Africa's most populous country.