Lagos does not take crypto. Lagos takes account numbers. Same thing, it turns out.
Here is the short version of this guide, for anyone landing in Lagos with dollars on their phone and a December calendar that is already full. You do not need to swap anything before you party. On Mular you can pay any Nigerian bank account straight from your USDT, USDC or any other coin you hold, the business gets Naira in about ten seconds, and a handful of Lagos spots now let you scan and pay with crypto at the table. The rest of this post is the detail: when the season actually runs, how the payment works, what it costs, and what to skip.
What Is Detty December, and When Does It Start?
Detty December is the stretch from mid-December into the first week of January when Lagos throws one long party (the spending starts earlier; last season's count began in mid-November), and half the diaspora flies home to attend it. The people just off the plane are the IJGBs ("I just got back"), and you can spot them by the jacket they are still wearing at Murtala Muhammed. It is also, increasingly, an economy. The last season pulled in about ₦396.5 billion of consumer spending across 3.6 million people, with diaspora visitors behind 55% of it.*
Can You Actually Spend Crypto in Lagos?
Yes, and the reason is sitting on every suya grill in the city. Walk up to any stand after dark and somewhere near the pepper there is a piece of cardboard with an account number on it, written in marker and slightly smoked. That cardboard is the whole Lagos payment system. Clubs, shortlets, the tailor finishing your outfit at 2am, the driver who waited three hours outside the concert: everyone says the same thing at the end. "Send it to this account." And anything with an account number can be paid from a crypto balance.
So the question was never whether the suya man takes USDT. He does not need to. He takes transfers, and you can send one from your stablecoins without stopping to think about Naira first. Nobody at the grill hears the word blockchain, and you never stand there doing exchange rate maths with a stick of suya going cold in your hand.
How to Pay for Anything in Lagos From Your Crypto Balance
- Fund your USDT or USDC wallet on Mular before you fly, from whichever exchange or client you get paid through.
- When the bill comes, open Mular, tap Send and pick the bank and account number off the cardboard (or the receipt, or the WhatsApp message).
- Type the amount in Naira, check the account details one more time, and confirm from your stablecoin balance.
- Show the "successful" screen. The money is already in their account.
That is it, and it works the same at a beach bar in Lekki as it does at your aunty's house in Surulere. If you would rather hold some Naira for the week, Send to your own Naira wallet on Mular instead and pay people from there; it is the same app either way, and the money never has to leave it.
What It Costs and How Long It Takes
Paying a bank account from a stablecoin or crypto balance costs a flat ₦50, as at 3 Nov 2026, whether it is a plate of asun or a week at a shortlet. The Naira lands in about ten seconds (about as long as the waiter spends pretending not to look at your screen). The rate moves through the day, so check the live USDT to Naira or Dollar to Naira page before a big payment rather than trusting a number somebody screenshotted on Tuesday.
Where You Can Scan and Pay With Crypto Directly
A growing list of businesses go one step further and take crypto at their own checkout, through Pay with Mular. As at 3 Nov 2026 the live list includes 245 Lagos for the club night; The Garden, 21 Bistro, Fire and Thyme, Nirvana, TRIB3, Shawama Grill, Fired & Iced and My Food by Hilda when you need to eat; Seasons 21 for somewhere to sleep it off; and event organisers Zeek Entertainment, Macedoine and Purpl.e.vent. Look for the Pay with Mular code at the counter or on the table, scan it, and pay from your crypto balance. Everywhere else, the cardboard method above still works.
The Detty December Mistakes Worth Skipping
First, carrying a fat envelope of cash around Lagos in December, which is a hobby, not a plan. The second is trusting anyone who offers you a "special IJGB rate" in a hotel lobby, which we have written about at length in the scams that target IJGBs every December. The third is losing track of where the money went, because by the 27th nobody can remember whether the boat trip was ₦80,000 or ₦180,000. You could keep a spreadsheet. Although, almost forgot, you do not have to: every payment you make on Mular sits in your history with the date, the amount and who received it, ready for the January reckoning.
And top up your line from the same balance. Airtime and data run out fastest in December, and you can buy both straight from your crypto instead of hunting for a recharge card at midnight.
Not Everything Is a Transfer (Yet)
I will not pretend the cardboard covers every inch of Lagos. The okada at the end of a long night may still want physical cash, a few market stalls still prefer notes, and some hotels insist on a card for the deposit. Keep a little Naira on you for those moments. But the list of places that only take cash gets shorter every December, and the ones that take a transfer already cover the parts of the season that actually cost money.
The Account Number Is the Checkout
What changes your December is not finding the one bar in Lagos that takes Bitcoin. It is realising every account number is already a till, and your stablecoin balance can pay any of them. So the next time you see that smoky cardboard by the grill, you will know it was a crypto checkout all along. It just never said.
Your Whole Detty December, Paid From One Balance
Mular lets you hold dollars as USDT or USDC and pay any Nigerian bank account straight from that balance, with Naira landing in about ten seconds and a flat ₦50 each time. The club, the shortlet, the suya and the driver, all from the same place you got paid.
Download Mular and land with your December already sorted.
As always, stay Jiggy.
Love, Mr Mular.
* "The Economics of Euphoria: Lagos' Detty December 2025 Report" by MO Africa Co, covering mid-November 2025 to 10 Jan 2026, as reported by Nairametrics, read 3 Nov 2026: https://nairametrics.com/2026/03/19/u-s-becomes-top-diaspora-source-for-lagos-detty-december-2025-report/
Written in early November, which in Lagos terms is already late, as the hub for this year's December guides. The cardboard by the grill deserves most of the credit.
Related reading: last year's IJGB guide to Lagos, and for anyone already counting, the Detty December budget guide.