President Bola Tinubu has signed a new executive order aimed at tightening control over Nigeria’s virtual assets sector, giving the Central Bank of Nigeria a leading role in the fight against crypto fraud. The Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026, took effect immediately after it was signed, according to a statement issued by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga on Friday.
For years, Nigerians have lost money to unregistered platforms and fraudulent operators who exploited gaps between the country’s financial regulators. The presidency said virtual assets have grown so fast that they now blur the lines between currencies, commodities and securities, leaving agencies operating in silos and creating loopholes that scammers were quick to exploit. “Too often, unregistered and fraudulent operators have exploited these gaps to prey on unsuspecting Nigerians, costing families their savings,” the statement read.
To close those gaps, the order sets up a new Virtual Asset Council chaired by the CBN. The Nigeria Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission will serve as vice-chairs, while the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and the Office of the National Security Adviser round out the membership. Rather than creating a brand new regulatory body, the council is designed to coordinate the agencies that already exist so that nothing falls through the cracks.
Registration duties will now be split according to the nature of each asset. Activities that resemble securities trading will fall under the SEC, while payment, settlement and custody services involving non-security virtual assets will be registered through the CBN. Where it isn’t immediately clear which agency should take charge, the council itself will decide, closing the loophole that let some operators dodge oversight altogether.
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The CBN is also moving forward with a regulatory sandbox, a controlled space where licensed firms can test crypto products and blockchain-based tools under close supervision before they reach the wider public. Regulators say this will let them study the effects on financial stability, consumer protection and monetary policy before any product goes fully live. Separately, the Nigeria Revenue Service will roll out a dedicated tax policy for virtual assets, aimed at clarifying obligations for operators and ensuring the fast-growing industry pays its fair share into government coffers.
A Virtual Assets Office will also be set up inside the CBN to serve as the day-to-day secretariat, handling information sharing, processing applications and reporting across the participating agencies. Tinubu has given the council 30 days to produce a Harmonised Implementation Framework, while government is also finalising a broader Virtual Assets White Paper to guide long-term policy for the sector.
The move comes as Nigeria’s Senate separately works on legislation to set clearer rules for crypto exchanges and wallet providers, signalling that regulatory pressure on the industry is building from multiple directions at once. For everyday Nigerians, the order signals that platforms operating outside registered channels will face tighter scrutiny going forward, while legitimate operators get a clearer, faster path to compliance.
