Nigeria’s Senate Advances a Bill to Regulate Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Virtual-Asset Services
Nigeria’s Senate passed a cryptocurrency regulatory bill through second reading and referred it to the Committee on Capital Market. The proposal sought licensing, transparency, and compliance requirements for exchanges and virtual-asset service providers in one of the world’s largest Bitcoin and cryptocurrency user markets.
On June 9, 2026, Nigeria’s Senate passed a bill seeking to regulate cryptocurrency through its second reading. The chamber then referred the proposal to the Senate Committee on Capital Market for further consideration and a public hearing, with instructions to report back within four weeks.
The bill, sponsored by Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin and presented on the floor by Senate Chief Whip Tahir Monguno, proposed a comprehensive regulatory and supervisory framework for virtual assets, digital assets, and virtual-asset service providers. Among its central features were mandatory licensing, transparency, and compliance requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Nigeria.
The legislative stage matters. A second reading is not enactment, and the bill had not become law on June 9. The event instead records a material step in Nigeria’s continuing effort to bring a large, widely used digital-asset market into a more coherent statutory framework. Senators supporting the measure explicitly cited Nigeria’s very high level of virtual-asset participation and the risks created by a fragmented regulatory environment.
Bitcoin was not the only asset governed by the proposal, but it was a documented major use case in Nigeria for savings, cross-border transfers, and investment. Rules governing exchanges and virtual-asset service providers therefore had a concrete Bitcoin-access mechanism. The event is preserved categorically as a significant legislative stage in an important African Bitcoin market, while later executive or statutory developments remain separate historical stages.