2026 Crypto Tax in Nigeria: Latest Updates

Your crypto profit is taxed at income tax rates of 0% to 25%, depending on your annual taxable income. Holding crypto or transferring it between your own wallets isn’t taxed.

Selling stablecoins such as USDT and USDC attracts no withholding tax under paragraph 9.5(1). Separately, because their value is pegged to the US dollar, selling them usually produces little or no dollar-denominated gain.

“I really do not understand how I will pay 3.5% when converting crypto to NGN.” That was one Nigerian trader’s concern on Bitcointalk in September 2026. That number is wrong.

The 1% withholding tax is credited against your final tax bill. The 1.5% stamp duty is paid by whoever receives the crypto, not you when you sell it. Stablecoin sales are also exempt from the 1% withholding.

Here’s what the new crypto tax rules mean for your transactions, how your profit is calculated, and what you need to do. 

Your crypto profit is now taxed like income, from 0% to 25%

Nigeria no longer charges individuals a flat 10% tax on crypto gains. Since 1 January 2026, your crypto gains are added to your other income and taxed at the normal rates. The NRS guidelines published on 31 July 2026 spell out how.

So if you earn ₦700,000 a year, a small crypto profit on top is taxed at 0%. If you earn ₦20 million, the same profit is taxed at 21%.

The Nigeria Tax Act 2025 and Nigeria Tax Administration Act 2025 took effect on 1 January 2026. They replaced the old flat 10% tax on crypto gains that came in with the Finance Act 2022.

FIRS is now the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), and it collects the tax. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) still licenses and supervises crypto platforms.

Nigeria’s personal income tax rates for 2026

Your annual taxable income determines which tax bands apply.

Source: Taxsummaries 

These rates work in slices. Each rate only applies to the part of your income inside that band, so reaching the 25% band doesn’t mean all your income is taxed at 25%.

For companies other than qualifying small companies, the general company income tax rate is 30%. Corporate obligations are separate from individual crypto taxation.

The New Crypto Tax Charges at a Glance

A BTC or ETH sale can involve 1% withholding, deducted from the crypto you sell. The 1.5% stamp duty is separate and applies to the buyer receiving the crypto.

Buying and holding crypto costs you little or nothing in tax

Owning crypto isn’t taxed, even when the price goes up. The only charge at the buying stage is stamp duty, and it’s small and one-off.

Buying crypto with naira: 1.5% comes off the crypto you receive

Under the NRS guidelines, whoever receives the crypto pays the 1.5% stamp duty on an eligible conversion. Suppose you purchase one Bitcoin for ₦1 million.

You still pay ₦1 million, but your wallet receives 0.985 BTC after stamp duty. Your acquisition cost includes the applicable stamp duty. That means the duty is already built into your cost, which reduces your taxable profit when you sell.

You also don’t deduct the same duty twice. Crypto-to-crypto swaps don’t attract this stamp duty, although swapping can still create a taxable gain.

Holding, moving, and staking crypto aren’t taxed

Several everyday activities don’t create an immediate tax obligation:

• Holding cryptocurrency, even when its market value increases.
• Moving cryptocurrency between wallets you personally own.
• Locking your existing coins to participate in staking.
• Borrowing money against your cryptocurrency.
• Wrapping Bitcoin into another representation, such as WBTC, under the qualifying rules.

Receiving staking rewards is different from locking your coins. Rewards can count as taxable income when you receive them. If you gift crypto, you don’t pay income tax on it.

The person you gave it to works out their gain when they sell. Companies should review separate rules for transfers between their own wallets.

Selling or swapping: the 1% taken is an advance on your tax

When you sell, only your profit is taxed, not the whole sale. The 1% taken at the point of sale is an advance on that tax, not an extra tax, and stablecoins skip it. Under the NRS crypto tax guidelines, the following transactions can create taxable gains:

• Selling Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency for naira.
• Swapping one cryptocurrency for another.
• Using cryptocurrency to purchase goods or services.

Selling Bitcoin, Ether, and similar coins: 1% withheld, and you get it back as credit

When you sell Bitcoin or Ether through licensed exchanges and P2P marketplaces run by them (VASPs), under the withholding rules, 1% of the full sale amount is withheld. 

The 1% withholding is deducted from the cryptocurrency you sell. Separately, the buyer receiving the cryptocurrency pays the 1.5% stamp duty.

Suppose you sell Bitcoin worth ₦500,000. A 1% withholding represents ₦5,000, deducted in Bitcoin rather than from your agreed naira payment. That ₦5,000 becomes a credit against your final income tax liability.

When you file your annual return, you reconcile the amount already withheld with what you owe.

If you end up owing less than what was withheld, the difference is refundable through your annual return (paragraph 9.4(4)). So the “3.5%” doesn’t add up.

For a seller, it’s 1% at most, and that 1% comes back to you as credit. The buyer bears the stamp duty, and the seller receives credit for the withholding. 

Selling USDT or USDC: no withholding, and usually no gain

Under paragraph 9.5 of the guidelines, sales of stablecoins such as USDT and USDC are exempt from the 1% withholding tax. Your taxable gain is also measured against the dollar. Since these stablecoins are built to stay at $1, the gain is usually negligible or zero.

For example, imagine buying 100 USDT when the exchange rate is ₦1,200 per dollar. You later sell it when the rate reaches ₦1,500. You receive ₦150,000, up from the ₦120,000 purchase value.

However, if your USDT maintained its dollar value, you haven’t made a dollar-denominated gain.

That ₦30,000 is just the naira getting weaker. It isn’t crypto profit, so there’s nothing to tax. When you sell USDT for naira, the buyer receiving the USDT pays the 1.5% stamp duty, not you.

If your stablecoins earn interest or other rewards, those earnings count as taxable income when you receive them.

Swapping one coin for another counts as selling the first coin

Exchanging Bitcoin for Ethereum is also a disposal, even when no naira enters your bank account. For tax purposes, you’re selling Bitcoin and purchasing Ethereum at its market value on the swap date.

Any gain on Bitcoin can be taxable. If the coin you’re giving up is Bitcoin, Ether, or similar, 1% of it is withheld. There’s no stamp duty on swaps. Your new Ethereum acquisition cost is its dollar value when you receive it.

Keep that figure because you’ll need it when you eventually sell. One Bitcointalk user asked whether the charges on swaps get counted when your profit is taxed. They do. Every 1% withheld goes into your credit at the end of the year.

Selling at a loss: the 1% still comes off, and you claim it back

The 1% is taken from the sale amount, not your profit, so it comes off even when you sell at a loss. The Digital Assets Coalition raised exactly this point (Nairaland). You don’t lose it, though. It’s credited on your annual return.

Your loss also counts: it cancels out crypto gains in the same year, and any leftover carries forward with no time limit, but only against future crypto gains, not your salary (paragraph 9.4).

Keep your purchase records, sale records, and evidence of withholding. That’s how you prove the loss and get the 1% back.

Crypto you earn is taxed as income on the day you receive it

Getting paid in crypto, or earning it from staking, mining, or airdrops, counts as income at its value on the day it lands. Some of that may be withheld at source.

Freelancers and remote workers paid in crypto

Professional fees, employment income, and business income received in crypto are all income, valued on the day you get full control of the coins, converted at the official naira rate published by the CBN (the NAFEM rate).

If a Nigerian company pays you, it should withhold 5% or 10%, and you get credit for it. If your client is abroad, nobody withholds anything, so you declare the income yourself on your annual return.

When you later convert it, generally only the change in value since the day you received it counts as a gain. For USDT, that’s usually nothing. As one Nairaland post put it, “the new rules could affect people who may not even consider themselves crypto traders” 

Staking, mining, and DeFi rewards

Staking, mining, and DeFi rewards count as income on the day you receive them. If a licensed platform pays them out, it withholds 10%, and you get credit for it.

The value on that day also becomes your cost, so when you sell later, you’re only taxed on any change after that, not twice. Locking coins to stake isn’t taxed. 

Airdrops

“Imagine Airdrop that small average guys are using to guide, they still wanna tax it again,” Favour Crypto said on X in August 2026. Here’s the part that should help: small airdrops with no established market price attract no tax until you sell them, while worthless tokens attract nothing at all.

If you receive an airdrop worth $50 on an established market, that amount generally counts as income when you receive it. If the token had no market and no way to sell it when it landed, it’s taxed at nothing on arrival.

When you do sell, the full amount you get is taxed, because your cost is zero. Tokens that remain worthless and cannot be sold don’t create taxable income simply because they appear in your wallet.

Your gain is worked out in dollars, so a weaker naira isn’t counted as profit

The NRS measures your gain in dollars between the day you bought and the day you sold, then converts only that dollar gain to naira. 

1. Establish your cryptocurrency’s dollar acquisition cost.
2. Calculate its dollar value when you sell.
3. Subtract the acquisition cost.
4. Convert the dollar gain into naira using the applicable CBN/NAFEM rate on the sale date.
5. Add the taxable gain to your other annual taxable income.
6. Calculate your income tax and subtract the 1% already withheld.

Worked example: ₦970,000 in naira appreciation isn’t ₦970,000 in taxable profit

Consider the figures from the NRS guidelines.

₦500,000 of that is just the naira falling from ₦1,000 to ₦1,500 per dollar. So you’re taxed on ₦470,000, not ₦970,000.

How much tax would you actually pay?

Scenario 1: You have no other taxable income. Your ₦470,000 gain falls within the first ₦800,000 tax-free band.

Assumes no other tax liabilities, adjustments, or credits.

Scenario 2: You already have ₦3 million in annual taxable income. Your existing income fills the first two tax bands. The additional ₦470,000 falls entirely within the 18% band.

If your other income is anywhere between ₦3 million and about ₦11.5 million, the gain sits in the 18% band, and the tax on it is the same ₦84,600. When calculating acquisition costs across multiple purchases, the guidelines provide for FIFO by default. You can also use the weighted-average method, provided you choose it from the start and never switch methods.

The NRS says prices must come from a source it approves, and it hasn’t published that list yet. Until it does, keep a record of where each price came from. A crypto rate calculator can help you estimate today’s conversion value, but it isn’t a substitute for official valuation records.

Three things to do now: get a Tax ID, keep your records, file once a year

Most of the work is small. Get a Tax ID, keep a record of each trade, and include crypto in your annual return.

1. Get your Tax ID

The NRS guidelines require people dealing in cryptocurrency to have a Tax ID. Platforms must have your Tax ID before they activate your account (paragraph 12.0). For Nigerian individuals, the Tax ID system is linked to the National Identification Number (NIN). 

2. Keep a record of every crypto transaction

You should be able to establish your acquisition cost, disposal value, and any tax already withheld. Keep the following information:

• Transaction dates and cryptocurrency amounts.
• Purchase prices and sale proceeds.
• Applicable exchange rates.
• Transaction hashes and platform receipts.
• Staking rewards, mining income, and airdrops.
• Any withholding tax deducted

3. File your annual tax return

Individuals generally file their annual income tax returns by the end of March each year (90 days after 31 December). Most individuals file with their relevant state revenue service. Check with your state revenue service or a tax professional to confirm the appropriate filing process.

Include your taxable crypto income, gains, qualifying losses, and withholding credits. Platforms also file a monthly return with the tax authority that lists each customer’s name, Tax ID, and NIN alongside their trades (TechCabal).

What happens if you don’t comply?

These figures reflect the penalties identified in the NRS guidelines. The ₦10 million penalty is associated with platform obligations, not the ordinary individual filing requirement.

Pull every sale’s date, amount, and transaction hash from your Breet transaction history

The record the NRS asks for already exists. The NRS wants the date, coin, amount, and naira value of every sale. For trades on Breet, that’s already in your transaction history, with the transaction hash (the unique blockchain ID) for each one, so there’s nothing to screenshot or rebuild at filing time.

Keep one clean record per trade by selling directly to Breet

Breet lets you sell cryptocurrency directly without finding a P2P buyer. Each sale is one transaction, one rate, and one bank payout. On a P2P deal, you might get paid in three transfers from strangers, and you have to match them up yourself.

With off-platform P2P transactions, you may receive payments from multiple individuals. For off-platform P2P deals with no platform in the middle, the NRS leaves the whole calculation to you on your annual return (paragraph 8.2).

Breet provides a transaction history within its app, including transaction hashes (the unique ID of each transfer on the blockchain) you can use to verify blockchain transactions.

When you sell crypto on Breet, you can refer to your transaction history when preparing your tax records. Keep your original acquisition records from other wallets or exchanges, too.

Know the rules, keep your receipts, and carry on

For a typical seller, especially of stablecoins, the new rules mostly add paperwork, and the dollar-based method can mean a smaller taxable gain than a naira-to-naira sum.

Your main responsibility is to establish what you earned, calculate any taxable gain, and retain evidence of taxes already paid. Rules can be updated, so check nrs.gov.ng or ask a tax professional for your own situation.

Frequently asked questions

Is cryptocurrency taxable in Nigeria?

Yes. Under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025, your crypto profits and any income you receive in crypto are taxed. Holding crypto or moving it between your own wallets isn’t.

How much tax do you pay on crypto in Nigeria?

Individuals pay income tax rates ranging from 0% to 25% on their total taxable income, including crypto gains worked out in dollars. Your applicable rate depends on your annual taxable income rather than a flat crypto tax rate.

How much of your crypto is taxable?

For a disposal, tax generally applies to the calculated gain rather than the entire sale amount. Cryptocurrency received as salary, professional fees, or qualifying rewards can also count as taxable income.

Is there tax on USDT in Nigeria?

USDT sales are exempt from the 1% withholding tax under the NRS guidelines. Ordinary USDT transactions usually produce little or no dollar-denominated gain, although applicable stamp duty and tax on yield income may still arise.

Do I pay tax if I sell crypto at a loss?

No. A loss means no income tax on that sale. If it were Bitcoin or similar, the 1% is still withheld, but it’s credited back to you on your annual return.

Do I pay income tax on cryptocurrency?

Yes, when you earn taxable income in cryptocurrency or realise a qualifying gain. This includes crypto received for employment, freelance services, mining, staking, and certain airdrops.

Olajide Ayomide

Olajide is a crypto writer with 3 years of experience explaining digital assets to readers learning the space one concept at a time. He has written about blockchain adoption, wallets, exchanges, and more.

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