A newly released report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that stablecoins now form a key bridge between crypto markets and the traditional financial system in Nigeria, ranking the country top in inflows in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria received about $59 billion in crypto-asset inflows between July 2023 and June 2024. It ranked second globally on Chainalysis’s 2024 Global Crypto Adoption Index, and sixth in 2025.

Within sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria accounts for roughly 60 per cent of stablecoin inflows since 2019, the report titled ‘Stablecoins in Nigeria: A Growing Cross-Border Channel’, released on Tuesday, noted. Nigerian households and small firms are moving money across borders in a new way: via smartphones, digital wallets, and U.S. dollar–pegged crypto assets known as stablecoins.

What began as a niche technology has become a meaningful cross-border payments channel. Its rapid growth is easing long-standing frictions in cross-border transactions. It is also testing the limits of existing monetary and regulatory frameworks.

Why Stablecoins Have Taken Hold

IMF noted that the appeal is straightforward, adding that stablecoins allow users with a smartphone and internet access to receive remittances or make cross-border payments in minutes, often at a lower cost than traditional channels. “For households and small firms with limited access to formal banking services, this is a practical alternative.”

According to the report, global drivers help explain the broader uptake in Nigeria. “Stablecoins are relatively stable in value, easy to transfer, and widely used as settlement assets within crypto markets. “They facilitate trading between exchanges and provide a convenient store of liquidity. For remittances, they can undercut conventional channels, where the average cost of sending US$200 to sub-Saharan Africa remains around 9 per cent of transaction value, well above the global average of 6 percent, according to the World Bank.”

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