Students are the largest crypto-holding group (43.6%), underscoring the youthful nature of Nigeria’s crypto community and their early adoption of digital finance.
Entrepreneurs follow closely (25.7%), showing strong participation from self-employed Nigerians, traders, business owners, and hustlers who use crypto for investment and business flexibility.
Traditional employees make up 17.4%, indicating growing acceptance of crypto beyond informal or youth circles, even among salary earners.
Freelancers and gig workers (5.6%) also feature, reflecting crypto’s role in global online work and cross-border earnings. Unemployed and retired individuals remain a small minority, under 3.5% combined.
About 60% of users make less than $50 per month, showing crypto activity is mostly at a small, retail scale.
The $10–$50 band (36%) is the single largest group, reflecting frequent, low-value trading or incremental investment returns.
Only about 30% of users earn between $50 and $500, suggesting that consistent moderate returns are less common.
Less than 3% of users earn above $1,000 per month, confirming that the Nigerian crypto market remains largely retail-driven rather than dominated by professional or institutional traders.
56.1% of users mostly send crypto, compared to 43.9% who mostly receive it, showing an active transaction culture.
Investing in other platforms or projects leads as the top reason for sending crypto (29.2%), indicating strong speculative and wealth-building motives.
Every 1 in 4 users (25.1%) use crypto for daily transactions like bills and subscriptions, showing rising integration into everyday finance.
Cross-border payments (7.7%) and donations (4.6%) remain small but notable niches, signaling growing utility beyond trading.
Wealth-building dominates motivation: 45.4% cite “active wealth building” as their primary motive, and an additional 21.8% cite “long-term financial security”.
Payments and utility are minor drivers: Only 3.3% report “daily utility” and 2.2% “digital commerce” as their chief motive for using crypto.
Hedging and cross-border flows matter: 8.7% use crypto for currency hedging, and 4.1% for cross-border payments, showing a dual role of investment plus international value flows.
Nigerian retail users treat crypto like a conventional financial instrument rather than only as a means of payment or speculation.
Nearly two-thirds (67%) of all crypto transactions in Nigeria are below ₦50,000, reflecting widespread use among everyday retail users.
The ₦15,000–₦25,000 band (28.2%) is the single largest group, showing consistent, small-scale engagement rather than high-value speculation.
Around 25% of users transact between ₦50,000 and ₦250,000, suggesting a growing middle class of more confident, mid-level investors.
Less than 3% of users transact above ₦1 million, confirming that Nigeria’s crypto market remains primarily retail-driven, not institutional or high-net-worth.
Men hold the majority share in crypto adoption (61%), indicating that the industry is still male-dominated despite growing female participation.
Over 219M women own crypto globally, showing that female adoption is increasing but still lags behind male ownership.
With 6.8% of the world’s population involved in crypto, adoption is growing, but there is still massive untapped potential, especially among women.
Bridging the gender gap could drive the next wave of crypto adoption, and greater financial inclusion and education could encourage more women to enter the space.
