The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria and Chainalysis, a blockchain analytics firm, have partnered as part of the capital market regulator’s sustained drive to frontally tackle the rising spate of crypto crimes in the nation’s growing digital asset market.
The Director-General of the SEC, Dr. Emomotimi Agama, who spoke of the collaborative initiative at a joint webinar theme with the theme “Combating Scams with Blockchain Intelligence”, stressed the need for coordinated action against cybercrimes and that transparency in crypto transactions should be the foundation of enforcement in the sector.
According to him, the commission is planning to use blockchain’s permanent transaction records, including identifying wallet clusters, tracking fund transfers, and analysing transaction histories on networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, to trace and monitor illicit movements of funds. This will.
Agama said these measures would help the commission detect scams earlier and respond faster.
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The Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Crime Report provided data supported the urgency of the SEC’s initiative.
According to the report, illicit crypto addresses received $178 billion worldwide over the last five years, with highest volume recorded in 2022, with $54.3 billion, followed by $46.1 billion in 2023 and $40.9 billion in 2024.
The SEC boss, who noted that these figures showed the scale of the problem and the need for advanced analytics in enforcement work, harped on the imperative for Nigeria to improve its technical capacity to match the sophistication of modern financial crimes.
He said the partnership with Chainalysis is expected to help bridge this capability gap and that the commission was working under the framework provided by the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2025, which took effect in April.
Agama described the enabling Act also enabling cooperation between Nigerian regulators and international partners without discouraging innovation as a key step toward establishing clear rules for the digital asset market.
While calling for active collaboration between regulators, technology providers, and industry players to address fraud before it escalates, the investment expert pointed out that by integrating blockchain analytics into its operations, the commission aims to create a safer environment for crypto transactions in the country.
