If you witnessed the flop of Nigeria’s CBDC, eNaira, you might be tempted to ask how the cNGN, though different, is performing.

In 28 months, eNaira facilitated only about 855,000 transactions worth about $18.3 million (₦29.3 billion). cNGN is on track to eclipse this amount in one-third of the time.

The cNGN is Nigeria’s first SEC-regulated local stablecoin issued by WrappedCBDC Limited, in collaboration with the Africa Stablecoin Consortium (ASC), of which WrappedCBDC is a part. It is reportedly pegged 1:1 to the Nigerian Naira (NGN) and minted on the Bantu public blockchain. Launched in February 2025, it is now available on major blockchains and listed on top African exchanges like Quidax and Busha. 

With cNGN, end users can make online payments and international remittances faster and more cheaply than with traditional methods. They can also use it to trade with other currencies on a crypto exchange or save in naira without the account maintenance fees charged by banks.

Analysing cNGN’s growth

Using Dune, an analytics tool for on-chain data, we track data from cNGN smart contracts on the major blockchain networks: Ethereum, Binance’s BNB Smart Chain (BSC), Polygon, and Coinbase’s Base.

The analysis reveals that cNGN’s transfer volume has been growing at an average of 77.42% month-on-month between February and October. Its total transfer volume in those nine months is over $15.8 million.

Notably, there seem to be real-world uses of cNGN as opposed to other forms of speculative trading. Wallet-to-Wallet transactions, with use cases like remittance and payments, make up more than half of all transfers (51.46%) involving cNGN.

What is driving the adoption of cNGN?

Two forces are driving the adoption of cNGN: the growth of fintechs using cNGN and competition between blockchains.

Since cNGN is a token without a consumer interface, its growth comes from fintechs and financial institutions leveraging it to power their products. “Most of the growth is from fintechs like (use)Azza that integrated cNGN early into their core flows and are now growing really fast…their growth is supporting our growth,” says Uyoyo Ogedegbe, Managing Director of Africa Stablecoin Consortium (ASC).

Launched about the same time as cNGN, Azza is a WhatsApp AI agent for buying and selling crypto. It allows users to buy and sell cNGN for naira or other digital currencies across more than eight chains, including Solana. Last month, it hit a new all-time high of $1.49M transactions, surpassing its former peak of $1.43M in July. 

However, an interesting shift took place between July and October 2025. Base moved from being the third to the topmost blockchain for useAzza transactions, which epitomises one of the other underlying forces propelling the growth of cNGN.

Base’s push in West Africa is spurring cNGN adoption

Base, operationalised last year in West Africa, has made significant investments that are spurring on-chain market activity. For instance, it hired a West Africa Lead to focus on market development. Within a year, they have organised several community initiatives aimed at getting idea and market-ready founders and startups to “build on Base”.

One of such initiatives is the Based Founder Fellowship Africa. “We recently concluded a Fellowship where we brought in a16z, Electric Capital & 1confirmation as VC partners and connected 20 African founders to these VCs. This is the first time this has ever happened on the continent,” says Damilare Aregbesola, Base’s West Africa Lead. 

Base’s strategy is working. Despite a trailing start to BSC in February 2025, cNGN transactions on Base are growing faster than everywhere else at 86% monthly average, BSC (38%).

For instance, as of March, Base processed only $196,000 of cNGN’s monthly transfer volume while BSC was processing double ($387,000). However, the cross-over came in June, as Base processed 39% ($1.14M) more cNGN volume than BSC ($0.8M). Since then, the gap between those two has widened significantly.

Ogedegbe credits Base for their work in spurring cNGN adoption. He said, “Base is aggressively growing as an ecosystem in our market, and that means projects are being onboarded weekly…especially given their regional focus and team leads pushing community growth in Africa. A number of platforms are coming to trust cNGN and are developing products, ideas and infrastructure that naturally increase the liquidity depth of cNGN,” says Ogedegbe. 

As of Q3, more than 25 products were live on Base with 50 more in production, including heavy-hitters like HuruPay, Blockradar and base-incubated startups like paycrest, zerocard and zoracle. “No other ecosystem has the number of quality products Base has in & out of the payment sector in the continent,” Aregbesola brags. With more founders building on Base more transactions will happen via cNGN, as access to the Nigerian market is key. “What really pushed cNGN on Base is the increase in the number of products being built on Base, which in turn, use cNGN to handle payouts,” Aregbesola explains.

Why do founders keep choosing Base?

While the network’s lower fees and smoother user experience are critical, many more things appeal to founders regarding working with Base. 

Base’s appeal stems from three main areas, the West Africa lead tells Condia. First, its affiliation with Coinbase, which is one of the most powerful brands in the crypto world. This affiliation can help boost a startup’s credibility and unlock access to introductions to other stakeholders in the value chain. The startups can also access Coinbase-developed infrastructure to build their product. 

Second, financial support. Coinbase has a dedicated vehicle for investing in startups via its Coinbase Ventures fund. For instance, Onboard Global is a Coinbase Ventures’ portfolio company. Beyond Coinbase Ventures, it also has access to other VCs interested in the crypto space and connects founders, just as it is doing with the second edition of its Based Batches. Based Batches received 725 applications globally and have selected 50 finalists to pitch at Ethereum’s World Fair, Devconnect Argentina. Some of the selected startups include Paycrest, which had participated in the first Based West Africa event. 

In addition, distribution and marketing support. “Through Base & Coinbase channels, we uniquely unlock global distribution for Fintechs. A good example is the Coinbase Wallet (now Base App) x Onboard Partnership.” Coinbase has over 100 million users in more than a hundred countries. This provides a significant rail for startups with suitable products to reach a wider audience. For instance, through Coinbase Wallet, Onboard Global’s P2P product, which provides a marketplace-like experience for trading in emerging markets, can reach more people.

In conclusion, cNGN is growing. Serious and well-funded ecosystem participants like Base are helping to drive transactions. So, what’s next? Should we expect more players like Binance and Polygon to compete with Base? Thereby leading to more cNGN transactions. Or might we see the launch of another NGN-backed stablecoin? Which comes first?

Special contributor: Oladayo Oladipupo