• Fraud rate drops 28% to 2.6% across African crypto markets in 2025

• Faster identity checks and stronger compliance drive improvements

• Regulatory reforms accelerate across major markets like Nigeria and South Africa

The fraud rate in Africa’s cryptocurrency market fell to 2.6% in 2025, marking a 28% decline from 3.6% in 2024, according to a report released on March 19 by identity verification platform Sumsub. The report, State of the Crypto Industry 2026, is based on the company’s internal data on identity verification and user activity for 2024 and 2025, as well as a survey of 300 companies operating in the sector.

Overall, African countries are managing to contain crypto-related fraud despite increasingly sophisticated attacks. However, the situation varies across markets. Kenya recorded the lowest fraud rate on the continent at 2.5%, followed by Nigeria (2.6%), South Africa (3.1%), and Ghana (4.6%). In countries with smaller crypto activity—such as Senegal, Mali, Tanzania, Chad, Uganda, and Cameroon—fraud rates exceed 5%.

More broadly, crypto platforms across Africa are making significant progress in identity verification and fraud prevention, even as the sector faces rising regulatory pressure and more advanced attacks driven by automation and artificial intelligence. The report notes that Africa’s crypto industry is entering a phase of “regulated maturity,” where compliance and fraud prevention are built into product design rather than treated as separate operational tasks.

At the continental level, the average identity verification time dropped from 25 seconds in 2024 to 18 seconds in 2025, a 28% decrease. This is faster than the global average of 19 seconds, with only Europe and North America performing better at 16 seconds. The data suggests that identity verification can remain efficient even as regulatory requirements tighten.

Document-free verification gains ground

Across Africa, mobile-first user journeys—optimized for low bandwidth and diverse identity formats—are helping reduce repeated attempts and manual interventions, particularly in markets where smartphone usage dominates.

Another key trend is the growing alignment between user experience and compliance. Document-free verification (“Non-Doc”) is gaining traction, with high acceptance rates that allow faster onboarding while meeting regulatory standards. In 2025, success rates for Non-Doc verification reached 92% in Nigeria, 93% in Kenya, and 94% in South Africa.

At the same time, regulatory reforms accelerated across major African crypto markets in 2025. South Africa implemented the “Travel Rule,” an international anti-money laundering standard requiring crypto service providers to collect and share sender and recipient data. The country also introduced new tax rules for crypto assets under the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework.

Nigeria adopted new legislation recognizing virtual assets as financial securities, while Kenya’s Virtual Asset Service Providers Act established licensing requirements under the supervision of the Capital Markets Authority and the central bank.

Globally, crypto fraud rates remained broadly stable at around 2.2% between 2024 and 2025, though regional trends diverged: up 65% in Asia-Pacific (3.3%), up 8% in Europe (1.4%), down 38% in North America (1.6%), down 7% in Latin America (1.4%), and down 28% in Africa (2.6%).

Walid Kéfi