President Bola Tinubu signed the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026, in Nigeria, establishing a unified regulatory framework for digital assets that took immediate effect. According to officials, the order places the Central Bank of Nigeria at the center of oversight to harmonize regulation and improve coordination among financial and market regulators in response to fragmented supervision of the virtual asset sector.
This council serves as the highest-level coordination mechanism for virtual asset regulation, aiming to harmonize oversight and improve cooperation among financial, revenue, and capital market regulators. The order also creates a Virtual Asset Office domiciled at the CBN to facilitate information sharing, licensing applications, and regulatory reporting among participating agencies.
The Executive Order establishes a Virtual Asset Council chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) serving as vice-chairs, according to official statements.
Officials at the Nigeria Stablecoin Summit 2.0 in Lagos emphasized that the CBN’s chairmanship of the council will enable regulators to better understand the operations of the crypto industry and enhance consumer protection. The CBN is tasked with supervising payment, settlement, custody, and other services involving non-security virtual assets under the new framework, sources confirmed. The CBN governor is positioned as co-chair or chair of the primary virtual asset coordination body, underscoring the bank’s strategic leadership role in digital asset governance.
The SEC retains jurisdiction over virtual assets classified as securities, consistent with the Investment and Securities Act 2025 (ISA 2025), which defines digital and virtual assets as securities when they exhibit investment characteristics. Section 357 of ISA 2025 vests the SEC with authority over such assets, aligning legislative provisions with existing SEC rules implemented since May 2022. These rules require issuers, custodians, and platforms to register with the commission. The Executive Order reinforces this delineation by assigning the SEC responsibility for securities-related virtual assets, while the CBN focuses on non-security virtual assets and payment-related functions, according to regulatory documents and policy commentary.
The Virtual Asset Regulatory Council (VARC), reportedly co-chaired by the CBN governor and the NRS executive chairman, operates as a strategic coordination body within the broader institutional architecture. The Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) oversees non-security virtual assets such as stablecoins, payment tokens, and tokenized deposits, with joint oversight by the CBN and NRS, local reports indicate. These structures aim to reduce regulatory gaps and overlaps, with the Virtual Asset Council empowered to resolve jurisdictional uncertainties between the CBN and SEC.
The Executive Order marks a significant shift from Nigeria’s previous stance on virtual assets. In February 2021, the CBN issued a circular directing all deposit money banks and financial institutions to identify and close accounts linked to cryptocurrency exchanges, effectively barring banking services for crypto businesses. The circular also prohibited banks from holding assets or liabilities denominated in crypto and forbade the use of crypto assets as loan collateral. However, by December 22, 2023, the CBN issued Guidelines on the Operations of Bank Accounts for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), which reversed the earlier ban by permitting regulated financial institutions to open designated accounts for licensed VASPs subject to stringent know-your-customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) controls.
The CBN is advancing plans to establish a regulatory sandbox for the virtual assets industry, allowing qualified operators to test blockchain-based products and services under regulatory supervision, officials said. This initiative, combined with the 2023 banking guidelines, signals a move toward controlled integration of virtual asset activities into the formal financial system under CBN oversight.
Since late 2024, the CBN and SEC have formed joint technical committees and exchanged policy inputs on licensing, custody standards, and AML supervision to lay the groundwork for the coordinated regime now formalized by the Executive Order. The CBN’s 2023 VASP Guidelines explicitly recognize the SEC as the competent authority for licensing and monitoring VASPs, while the SEC acknowledges the CBN’s supervisory role over payment systems and settlement channels.
The coordinated framework aims to address risks such as money laundering, terrorism financing, consumer fraud, undetected capital outflows, and currency speculation, which have been highlighted in previous regulatory assessments and International Monetary Fund reports. Analysts note that Nigeria has become a pioneer among emerging market economies in crypto asset regulation, requiring all crypto exchanges since 2024 to be incorporated in Nigeria and licensed by the SEC, now complemented by CBN-led coordination.
The Executive Order takes immediate effect, reflecting an active regulatory shift rather than a future proposal, according to official communications from the Presidency. It builds on the trajectory from the 2021 banking ban through the 2023 VASP Guidelines toward structured and predictable supervision of digital assets under a multi-agency framework. The Virtual Asset Council is empowered to determine the appropriate supervising agency in cases of jurisdictional ambiguity, reducing uncertainty between the CBN and SEC mandates, officials said.
The development follows the enactment of the Investment and Securities Act 2025 and ongoing regulatory collaboration, marking a defining moment in Nigeria’s digital asset regulatory evolution. The coordinated approach is expected to foster a more regulated and predictable digital asset market in Nigeria.
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