Africa’s largest crypto market is not the one collecting the most visible crypto tax revenue. That distinction, at least for now, belongs to Kenya.
- Africa’s largest crypto market is not the one collecting the most visible crypto tax revenue.
- That distinction, at least for now, belongs to Kenya.
- Kenya moved early on crypto tax Kenya introduced its 3 per cent Digital Asset Tax through the Finance Act 2023, targeting...
- Nigeria maintained its position as a top global player, ranking second worldwide on Chainalysis’s Global Adoption Index.
Keep reading for the full breakdown on Africa — everything you need to know is covered below.
Even as Nigeria dominates Africa in crypto adoption, peer-to-peer trading, and transaction volumes, Kenya has moved faster in turning digital asset activity into measurable tax revenue.
The contrast is becoming clearer as governments across Africa tighten oversight of crypto trading amid concerns over tax evasion, illicit flows, and the growing role of digital assets in everyday finance.
Data released by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) shows that the country collected about KSh 1.1 billion in digital asset taxes between September 2023 and June 2025, following the introduction of its Digital Asset Tax (DAT).
That figure matters because Kenya’s crypto market is much smaller than Nigeria’s. Yet Kenya already has a functioning tax collection structure tied directly to digital assets, while Nigeria is still building a broader enforcement framework.
Chainalysis previously ranked Nigeria among the world’s top crypto-adoption markets, driven by naira volatility, remittances, inflationary pressures, and limited access to foreign exchange. But despite the scale of activity, there is still no publicly disclosed figure showing Nigeria has collected more crypto tax revenue than Kenya.
Kenya moved early on crypto tax
Kenya introduced its 3 per cent Digital Asset Tax through the Finance Act 2023, targeting income earned from the transfer or exchange of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies and Non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Authorities later reduced the tax rate and expanded oversight by imposing excise duties on crypto platform fees in 2025, as part of a broader push to formalise the sector.
The country has also pursued regulation through its Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) framework, giving tax authorities clearer visibility into transactions and operators.
On Tuesday, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) escalated that effort further by seeking identities and transaction details from crypto traders and platforms as it widened its crackdown on tax evasion tied to digital assets.
The move reflects how Kenya’s tax authorities increasingly view crypto not as a fringe activity but as a taxable part of the digital economy.
According to official disclosures, the KSh 1.1 billion collected over 21 months suggests that tens of billions of shillings in digital asset transactions passed through taxable channels.
Kenya’s approach also mirrors a broader trend among African governments seeking to capture revenue from fast-growing digital economies amid rising debt-servicing costs and fiscal pressures.
Nigeria leads in adoption, but tax data remains unclear
Nigeria’s crypto market is larger than Kenya’s across all volume metrics. Chainalysis estimates that about $59 billion in cryptocurrency transaction volume passed through Nigeria in 2024.
Between July 2024 and June 2025, Nigeria led Sub-Saharan Africa with $92.1 billion in value received over the 12-month period, nearly three times that of South Africa. Nigeria maintained its position as a top global player, ranking second worldwide on Chainalysis’s Global Adoption Index.
Yet Nigeria’s tax framework for crypto only became comprehensive in 2025. The Finance Act of 2022 introduced a 10 per cent tax on profits from digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, but enforcement never took off.
In March 2024, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) filed a major tax-evasion case against Binance, alleging non-payment of Value Added Tax (VAT) and company income tax, and failure to file required returns. The case sent a message, but it did not produce a published revenue figure for crypto tax collection.
The Nigeria Tax Act 2025 was then signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on June 26, 2025, and took effect on January 1, this year, as Techpression reported. The Act consolidates key tax rules into a single system and formally recognises the role of digital assets in the economy, clarifying how they will be taxed.
Under the new framework, VASPs must submit monthly reports to FIRS detailing transaction types, dates, values, counterparties, and other identifying information.
Nigeria has also introduced identity-linked reporting requirements, with exchanges required to link users’ Tax Identification Numbers and National Identity Numbers to their transactions.
Ayotunde Alabi, CEO of Luno Nigeria, identifies the core issue as an enforcement credibility gap, as he stated.
“When taxation moves faster than licensing and market conduct rules, you create uncertainty over who is ‘in scope.'”
As most crypto exchanges still operate without formal licenses, experts describe Nigeria’s current approach as “revenue first, rules later”, a sequence that threatens to push users toward informal peer-to-peer channels, defeating the goal of a transparent, taxable market.
The revenue gap is also a transparency gap
The comparison between Nigeria and Kenya ultimately concerns what each country has chosen to count and disclose. Kenya has a line item: KSh 1.1 billion in crypto tax revenue over 21 months, tied to a specific tax code and a documented transaction base.
Nigeria has enforcement actions, back-tax demands against Binance, VAT charges on exchange fees since mid-2024, and a sweeping 2025 tax reform, but no equivalent publicly disclosed figure showing how much those measures have yielded.
Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of Nigeria’s Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, has said: “We think that the regime we have now for virtual assets, including crypto, is fair, is balanced, and is globally competitive.”
Whether that regime is generating comparable revenue remains, for now, an unanswered question.
Kenya built a crypto tax system, collected from it, published the numbers, and is now pushing to widen the net further through the Finance Bill 2026.
Nigeria built a larger market, moved against it, and then built the regulatory structure around the enforcement.
Between July 2024 and June 2025, crypto transaction values in Nigeria reached an estimated $92.1 billion, a tax base that, if structured and disclosed as Kenya has done, would likely dwarf anything Kenya could report. The potential is not in question. The system to capture it is still being assembled.