Nigeria’s rapid expansion as a Web3 market is beginning to carry wider relevance for the African iGaming and sports betting sector, particularly around payments, wallet technology and digital transaction infrastructure.
According to the Nigeria Web3 Landscape Report 2025 from Hashed Emergent, the country now accounts for 4% of global Web3 developers, the highest contribution from any African market. The local talent base grew 36% year-on-year, while Nigerian founders raised US$43m in 2025, more than double the $20m recorded the previous year.
For the gambling sector, the significance lies less in crypto speculation and more in infrastructure. Nigeria’s Web3 growth is being driven heavily by payments use cases, especially stablecoins, on and off ramps and cross border transactions. These are all areas with increasing relevance for licensed betting and gaming businesses operating in fragmented, high friction and currency sensitive markets.
The report says finance accounted for 89% of total funding, with $38m flowing into businesses focused on practical transaction tools. It also highlights 9,000% growth in stablecoin deposits between 2018 and 2025, while Nigeria led 24-hour stablecoin peer-to-peer transfer volume on centralised exchanges in 2025 at $48.2m.
This matters for operators and suppliers across Africa because payments remain one of the biggest structural challenges in digital gambling. Fast settlement, cross border movement of funds, inflation hedging and lower cost transfer tools are increasingly central to how sportsbooks and gaming platforms think about future market expansion.
Tak Lee, CEO & Managing Partner at Hashed Emergent (pictured), says: “Nigeria’s momentum in Web3 has evolved beyond early adoption into a mature, utility driven ecosystem.”
The regulatory backdrop is also becoming clearer. Nigeria’s Securities & Exchange Commission has formally recognised digital assets as securities under the Investment and Securities Act 2025, while a new tax framework has added further structure to the market.
For GGN readers, the immediate takeaway is not that Nigeria is becoming a gambling crypto hub; it is that one of Africa’s biggest digital economies is building the kind of payment and developer ecosystem that could eventually influence how gaming wallets, alternative payments and transaction rails evolve across the continent.
