On 20th August 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC" or "the Commission") published, for public comment, its Proposed Rules on Digital and Virtual Asset Operations, Custody and Markets. Comments closed on 3rd September 2026. Once finalised, this instrument will become the single rulebook for anyone offering crypto or digital-asset-related services to people in Nigeria, ranging from trading apps and wallets to custodians, token issuers, and platforms tokenising real estate or other real-world assets.
For the growing number of Nigerian fintechs, exchanges, and crypto-adjacent businesses that have spent the past year positioning themselves for a licence, this draft matters more than most regulatory proposals. It quietly removes a category several operators believed was related to their business objectives, replaces it with a leaner structure, and sets out, in far more operational detail than before, exactly what a licensed digital asset business will be expected to do.
This article walks through what the proposed rules actually say, in plain terms: the categories on offer, what applies to every operator regardless of category, and the practical questions a founder or compliance lead should be asking right now... Read More