Nigeria’s blockchain industry has spent years asking government agencies to stop working at odds with one another. Now that the request has been granted, by executive order rather than an Act of Parliament, the people who asked for it are the ones with the most pointed reservations.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026, on Friday, 17 July, creating a Virtual Asset Council to harmonise how the CBN, SEC, Nigeria Revenue Service, NFIU and ONSA regulate the sector. The reaction from the two corners of the industry best placed to judge it, the blockchain lobby and the legal community advising it, has been consistent: relief, tempered by a shared insistence that a presidential signature is not the same thing as a law.
Mela Claude Ake, president of the Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria (SiBAN), framed the order as vindication for a campaign the association has run for years.
“The executive order on Virtual Assets establishing the Virtual Assets Regulatory Council follows in the steps of several recent regulatory interventions by the government in response to the persistent advocacy by SiBAN and other members of the blockchain sector,” Ake said in a chat with Technext. “These concerns have been voiced for years, but it’s better late than never.”
He was careful, though, not to let the moment read as job done.
“While the council has been created by executive order, I would advise that this does not and should not make redundant a comprehensive act of the national assembly that governs economic activities in blockchain,” he said, adding that the order should be read as one of several signs “that the government is waking up to the importance of blockchain and the government’s responsibility to the sector.”
Ake also flagged something operators will need clarity on fast: the CBN’s forthcoming regulatory sandbox.
“As for the CBN sandbox, it would be instructive for industry operators to understand its inner workings and how it differs from the sandbox of other regulators such as the SEC,” he said.
Executive Order on Virtual Assets: A bridge, not the destination
Lead Partner at Infusion Lawyers, former Executive Chair of VASPA and current Chair of VASPA’s Ecosystem Growth and Advocacy Committee, Senator Ihenyen reached a similar conclusion from a different angle, framing the order as necessary but structurally temporary.
“An Executive Order is an administrative fix, not a permanent foundation,” he said. “To secure true global investor confidence, protect consumers sustainably, and build a resilient digital economy, Nigeria must transition this temporary framework into a comprehensive, overarching Virtual Assets Statute enacted by the National Assembly.”
The distinction matters more than it might sound. An executive order derives its authority from Section 5 of the 1999 Constitution and from the president who signed it. A future administration can amend or quietly shelve it without needing to pass anything through the Senate. With Nigeria’s general elections roughly six months away, that is not a hypothetical concern for lawyers advising international investors on where to park capital.
Ihenyen’s welcome for the order itself was unambiguous. He described it as validating “what many of us in the legal, policy, and advocacy space have consistently urged”, summing up the underlying philosophy in a single line: “Nigeria needs coordination, not clampdowns; supervision, not suppression.”
He was equally direct about what the Council and its new operational arm, the Virtual Asset Office, owe the industry from day one, given how much bad blood years of abrupt bans and circulars have left behind. “The VAC and VAO must anchor their operations on transparency, accountability, and due process aligned with global best practices,” he said. “They must serve the public and the industry in Nigeria’s best interest, not their own.”
On the parallel legislative process already under way in the Senate, Ihenyen struck a more optimistic note than his warnings about the order’s limits might suggest.
“The permanent foundation the ecosystem has been clamouring for is already in motion,” he said, calling the VASP Bill’s progress “a significant legislative step”. His one condition: that lawmakers not shortcut the industry out of the process. “One ingredient that all stakeholders must treat as absolutely non-negotiable is this: documented, open, meaningful, sincere, transparent, and widespread stakeholder engagement,” he said.
Two voices, one warning
What stands out is how closely the gentlemen’s positions align, treating the issue as overdue and constructive. But both are unwilling to call it finished, and both point to the same missing piece: legislation with staying power beyond the current administration.
That legislative track already exists, and it predates the executive order. The Senate advanced the Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulation Bill, 2026, sponsored by Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau, to its second reading in June, about a month before Tinubu’s order. Senator Tahir Monguno, leading the debate on the bill, warned that without firmer statutory rules, crypto activity in Nigeria risks being pushed further underground rather than being brought into the open. The bill is currently with the Senate Committee on Capital Markets, which was given four weeks to report back.
Whichever comes first, a Council-driven implementation framework or a passed VASP Bill, industry watchers are effectively asking the same question SIBAN and Ihenyen have already answered: is Nigeria building a permanent home for its digital asset sector or another temporary shelter that the next government can dismantle?
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