According to Chainalysis, over $520 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from services and individuals through hacks and non-technical attacks like social engineering and phishing efforts in 2020.
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.
