Nigeria’s Web3 ecosystem recorded a significant rebound in 2025, with startups in the sector raising $43 million double the previous year’s figure according to a report by Hashed Emergent, an India-based venture capital firm backing early-stage African startups. The growth signals renewed investor interest in Nigeria’s digital asset space, though the funding landscape remains heavily concentrated and predominantly early-stage.
The report reveals that 89 per cent of total funding, approximately $38 million, flowed to finance products tied to stablecoin use cases, including payments and fiat-crypto exchanges. Stablecoin adoption has emerged as the primary driver of activity, with deposits growing more than 9,000 per cent between 2018 and 2025, while on-chain transaction value rose 56 per cent year-on-year to $92 billion. Tak Lee, chief executive officer and managing partner at Hashed Emergent, noted that “a wave of stablecoin-focused startups is driving increased investment activity across the ecosystem,” adding that consumer adoption has surged, further cementing Nigeria’s position as a global stablecoin hub.
The funding rebound, however, masks an ecosystem still dominated by early-stage bets. Early-stage deals accounted for $13 million, with most activity clustered around pre-seed and seed rounds. Nigerian Web3 startups recorded 82 deals in 2025, up from 72 in 2024, yet 73 of those deals were grants, with just one Series A round recorded. This concentration points to a market still in its formative phase, where startup formation is accelerating faster than the availability of scale capital.
Crypto usage patterns are also shifting. Withdrawal and deposit volumes for both fiat and crypto declined in 2025, signalling a cooling in speculative trading activity. Instead, more Nigerians are using digital currencies, especially stablecoins, for remittance payments across intra-African and global corridors to countries including Ghana, Kenya, the UK, Canada, and China. The report shows an 83 per cent withdrawal-to-deposit ratio on exchanges, indicating that stablecoins are functioning as a payment rail rather than a store of value.
Regulatory clarity, however, remains uneven. While the Investments and Securities Act passed in March 2025 formally recognised digital assets as securities under SEC oversight, Nigeria has also created the Virtual Asset Regulatory Council to oversee non-security virtual assets. The CBN launched a supervisory pilot programme on March 31, 2026, to monitor stablecoin issuers, exchanges, and payment processors for compliance with anti-money laundering standards. Despite these advances, fragmented policies and high capital requirements for Digital Asset Exchanges continue to create uncertainty for operators.
