UK-based crypto company, Blockchain.com, opens its office in Nigeria, marking its first physical presence in Africa.
The move comes seven months after it announced plans to enter the continent and positions Nigeria as the starting point for its broader African expansion.
The company says Nigeria is now its largest market in Africa, with user activity doubling.
At the centre of this shift is Nigeria’s Investment and Securities Act (2025), which explicitly brings virtual assets under the purview of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
For global exchanges, this marks the clearest regulatory direction yet in Africa’s biggest crypto market.
“Our numbers have grown by 100% since we announced our presence in February,” Owenize Odia, Blockchain.com’s general manager for Africa, told TechCabal. “Nigeria is our biggest market [in Africa], and that gave us the confidence to establish a presence [in the country] because we’re seeing a clear direction on how virtual assets should be regulated.”
Blockchain.com has joined other crypto exchanges in engaging with the SEC on licencing requirements, though approvals remain pending. Odia said the company’s strategy is to remain regulator-friendly.
“We want to be trusted and compliant partners of regulators, policymakers, and users across Africa,” she said. “So for us [Blockchain.com], our biggest task is ensuring we’re aligned with regulators in every region we intend to expand.”
To drive this expansion, Blockchain Africa has made several key hires across compliance, business development, customer success, and growth in Nigeria, and is expanding hiring in Ghana, where it is looking to fill a compliance lead role.
It reflects the crypto company’s regulatory priorities and ambition to scale quickly in high-adoption markets.
Odia confirmed the company is still hiring across other key markets; its expansion model is to “scale fast but in a compliant way,” by building teams that can engage regulators directly while also adapting the product to local market needs.
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The entry also signals a change in how crypto firms are positioning themselves on the continent. Rather than operating remotely, Blockchain.com says it sees value in “localisation”—putting staff on the ground who understand market nuances and can engage directly with regulators.
On September 15, Blockchain.com re-enabled naira withdrawals on its platform, reversing a pause imposed in 2024 during Nigeria’s regulatory crackdown on peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto transactions.
The move underscores its effort to restore full service for users while working within the country’s evolving compliance framework.
Nigeria has consistently ranked among the top countries globally for crypto adoption, despite years of regulatory uncertainty.
With the new law in place, renewed naira support, and global players now setting up shop, the country is becoming the launchpad for Africa’s next phase of crypto expansion.
Blockchain.com, which has been active since 2011, is betting that being early—and being compliant—will give it staying power.
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