Let me be straight with you from the start – there’s a lot of confusion out there about how TikTok gifts, coins, and money actually work, especially for us in Nigeria. People are throwing around terms like “redeem gifts to coins” or “convert coins to cash” without really understanding what’s happening behind the scenes. And honestly, TikTok doesn’t make it any easier with their complicated system that seems designed to keep creators guessing.
If you’re a Nigerian creator who’s been receiving gifts during your live streams and wondering how to turn that into actual naira sitting in your bank account, this guide is for you. If you’re trying to figure out how to buy coins to send gifts to your favorite creators, we’ve got you covered too. And if you’re just confused about this whole ecosystem and how money flows through TikTok, stick around because we’re breaking it all down based on real experiences from Nigerian creators who are actually doing this.
Here’s what you need to understand right away – you cannot directly redeem TikTok gifts for coins. That’s not how the system works, and anyone telling you otherwise is either confused or trying to scam you. What actually happens is more complicated, involves something called diamonds, and if you’re in Nigeria, requires some creative workarounds because TikTok doesn’t officially support direct payouts here. But don’t worry, thousands of Nigerian creators are making real money from TikTok gifts every single day, and we’re going to show you exactly how they do it.
Understanding How TikTok’s Virtual Currency Actually Works
Before we get into the how-to stuff, you need to understand the complete flow of money through TikTok’s system. This is where most people get confused, so I’m going to break it down step by step.
Step 1: Viewers Buy Coins
Everything starts with coins. Coins are TikTok’s in-app currency that viewers purchase using real money. In Nigeria, the pricing looks something like this: 70 coins cost about ₦990, 350 coins cost around ₦4,950, and it goes up from there. The more coins you buy at once, the slightly better rate you get.
These coins sit in the viewer’s TikTok wallet and they can use them to send gifts to creators they like. That’s the only purpose of coins for regular users – buying and sending gifts.
Step 2: Coins Turn Into Gifts
When a viewer wants to support a creator, they go into a live stream and tap the gift icon. They’ll see a menu of different virtual gifts they can send – roses, hearts, drama queens, universes, and tons of others. Each gift costs a specific number of coins.
For example, a simple rose costs 1 coin (about ₦14). A TikTok Universe, which is one of the most expensive gifts, costs 34,999 coins (roughly ₦489,860). When someone sends that gift during your live, you see the animation on screen and everyone in the live sees who sent it.
Step 3: Gifts Convert to Diamonds (This is Where Creators Come In)
Here’s the part that trips people up. When you receive a gift as a creator, it doesn’t stay as a gift and it doesn’t turn into coins. Instead, TikTok automatically converts it into something called diamonds.
Diamonds are the creator currency on TikTok. They’re what you actually accumulate and what you can eventually cash out. But here’s the catch that makes a lot of creators angry – TikTok takes a massive cut during this conversion.
When a viewer sends you a gift worth 100 coins, you don’t get 100 diamonds. You get approximately 50 diamonds. TikTok keeps about half the value. So if someone spent ₦1,400 to send you gifts, you’re starting with about ₦700 worth of diamonds before you even try to cash out.
This 50% cut is not officially confirmed by TikTok but it’s what creators consistently report when they track their earnings versus what viewers spend. Some gifts might have slightly different conversion rates, but the average is right around 50%.
Step 4: Diamonds Convert to Real Money (But Not in Nigeria… Officially)
Once you’ve accumulated diamonds, you can request a payout. The minimum is usually 100 diamonds. TikTok values each diamond at approximately $0.005 USD. So 100 diamonds equals about $0.50, and 1,000 diamonds equals about $5.
For creators in officially supported countries like the US or UK, they can link their PayPal or bank account in the TikTok app, request a withdrawal, and the money shows up. Simple.
For creators in Nigeria? It doesn’t work that way. When you try to link a Nigerian bank account or PayPal account registered in Nigeria, the option either doesn’t appear or the transaction fails. TikTok doesn’t officially support payouts in Nigeria due to regional restrictions.
This is where Nigerian creators have had to get creative, and it’s what we’re going to focus on in this guide.
Why Nigeria is Locked Out
TikTok’s decision to not support direct payouts in Nigeria isn’t unique to them. Many international platforms struggle with Nigerian payment integration due to currency control regulations, fraud concerns, and banking infrastructure challenges. It’s frustrating but it’s the reality.
However, The year has brought some positive changes. TikTok has been slowly expanding features in Africa, and some Nigerian creators are reporting that certain payout options are starting to work where they didn’t before. The platform has also introduced some features that make internal conversions easier, even if the final cashout still requires workarounds.
Specifically, there’s now a feature where you can convert live rewards directly to coins within the app without needing external methods. This doesn’t solve the cashout problem, but it gives creators more flexibility in how they manage their earnings inside the ecosystem.
The bigger change is that third-party services in Nigeria have become much more sophisticated and reliable. When this whole TikTok monetization thing started taking off a few years ago, most third-party exchangers were sketchy at best. Now there are established services with actual track records that thousands of creators use regularly.
The Real Methods Nigerian Creators Use to Get Paid
Let me show you the actual methods that work right now. These are not theoretical approaches – these are what creators are doing every single day to convert their TikTok earnings into naira they can spend.
Method 1: VPN Plus PayPal Plus Crypto (The Full Workaround)
This is the most “official” method that gets you closest to what TikTok intended, just with extra steps to deal with the Nigeria restriction.
Step 1: Set Up Your Creator Account with VPN
First, you need to enable creator tools and live gifting on your TikTok account. Go to Settings, then Creator Tools, then LIVE Gifts. You need to be 18 years old, have at least 1,000 followers, and be in good standing with TikTok.
If you’re in Nigeria and this option doesn’t appear, install a reliable VPN. UFO VPN and iTop VPN are two that Nigerian creators report working well. Set your location to either the United States or United Kingdom – these are the most stable for TikTok purposes.
Turn on the VPN, close TikTok completely, reopen it, and check again. The LIVE Gifts option should now appear. Enable it.
Important warning here – using a VPN can potentially get your account flagged. Use residential IP VPNs if possible, not data center IPs. Don’t switch countries constantly. Pick one location and stick with it for all your TikTok business.
Step 2: Receive Gifts and Accumulate Diamonds
Go live regularly and interact with your audience. The more engaging your content, the more likely viewers are to send gifts. When people send gifts during your live streams, they automatically convert to diamonds in your balance.
You can check your diamond balance anytime by going to your Profile, tapping the menu (three horizontal lines), and selecting Balance. You’ll see your total diamonds there.
Each diamond is worth about $0.005 USD, so you need to accumulate a decent amount before cashing out makes sense. Most creators aim for at least 10,000 diamonds ($50) before attempting a withdrawal to make the fees and effort worthwhile.
Step 3: Create US PayPal Account
This is crucial – you need a PayPal account that TikTok will accept for payout. A Nigerian PayPal account won’t work.
Create a new PayPal account while connected to your VPN with US location. Use a US phone number (you can get virtual numbers from services like TextNow or Google Voice) and put a US address. Many creators use addresses of US-based friends or relatives, or even hotel addresses in major US cities.
Verify this PayPal account as much as possible. Add a card if you can (some Nigerian cards work for verification even on US PayPal), confirm your email, and make the account look legitimate.
Step 4: Link PayPal to TikTok and Cash Out Diamonds
Back in TikTok (still with VPN on), go to your Balance section, tap Withdraw, and link your US PayPal account. Request a withdrawal of your diamonds.
TikTok usually processes these within 7-14 days. The money will hit your US PayPal account in dollars.
Step 5: Convert PayPal Dollars to Naira
Now you’ve got US dollars sitting in a PayPal account you can’t easily access from Nigeria. Here’s where you need another service.
Option A: If you have a Payoneer account, you can sometimes transfer from PayPal to Payoneer (though PayPal has been making this harder). From Payoneer, you can withdraw to Nigerian banks.
Option B: Use crypto as a bridge. Buy Bitcoin or USDT with your PayPal balance using services like Paxful or LocalBitcoins. Then sell that crypto for naira on Nigerian exchanges like Binance P2P, Luno, or Quidax. This is the route most creators end up using because it’s more reliable than PayPal-to-bank transfers.
Option C: Use the PayPal balance to buy gift cards, then sell those gift cards for naira on platforms like Cardtonic or Snappy Exchange.
Real Numbers Example: Let’s say you’ve got 10,000 diamonds. That’s $50 in your PayPal. Converting to crypto, you might get $48 of Bitcoin after fees. Selling that Bitcoin on Binance P2P in Nigeria at a rate of ₦1,600 per dollar gets you ₦76,800. So your 10,000 diamonds became about ₦76,800 naira after all the conversions and fees.
That’s a lot of steps and you’re losing money at each conversion point, but it works and it’s what thousands of creators do.
Method 2: Third-Party Diamond/Coin Exchangers (Faster, Riskier)
This method is more popular among Nigerian creators because it’s much faster and simpler than the VPN-PayPal-crypto route. You’re basically selling your diamonds or coins directly to Nigerian exchange services that specialize in TikTok currency.
How It Works
These exchangers will buy your diamonds or coins from you and pay you directly in naira to your Nigerian bank account. The transaction happens much faster – usually within 10-30 minutes – and you don’t need VPNs, PayPal accounts, or crypto knowledge.
The downside is that you’re getting even worse rates than the official method because these exchangers need to make their profit too. You might get only 60-80% of what the diamonds are technically worth in dollars.
Xchange.com.ng
This is one of the more established services that Nigerian TikTok creators use. Here’s how it works:
Visit their website and navigate to the TikTok withdrawal section. They’ll ask for your TikTok username and how many diamonds or coins you want to sell. They calculate what they’ll pay you in naira right there.
As of the time of this writing, their rates are around ₦1,500-1,800 per dollar equivalent of diamonds. So if you have diamonds worth $50, you might get ₦75,000-90,000 depending on current rates and demand.
You provide your Nigerian bank account details, complete the transaction through their system, and they transfer the naira directly to your account. Most people report getting paid within 30 minutes.
Important – start with a small test transaction first. Sell maybe $10-20 worth of diamonds before you try to sell hundreds of dollars worth. Make sure they actually pay you before you trust them with larger amounts.
Cardtonic
Cardtonic is primarily known for gift card trading, but they’ve expanded into TikTok-related services. Many creators use them to convert TikTok earnings to naira.
The way it works with Cardtonic is a bit different. Instead of directly buying your diamonds, they help you convert them to gift cards (like iTunes or Google Play cards) which you then sell to them for naira.
For example, you use your diamonds or coins to purchase gift cards through TikTok’s various international features or partner sites, then you sell those gift cards to Cardtonic at their rates. The overall conversion still gets you about 70-80% of the dollar value in naira.
Cardtonic has an app that makes the process pretty smooth. They also offer a sign-up bonus of ₦3,000 which helps offset some of your conversion losses when you’re starting out.
Method 3: The New In-App Conversion Feature
This is a newer feature that some Nigerian users are reporting success with as of early 2025. TikTok has added functionality that allows you to convert certain types of rewards directly to coins within the app, without needing external services or VPNs for this specific conversion.
How It Works
After receiving gifts during lives, go to Settings, then Wallet, then look for “Convert Rewards to Coins” or similar language. This feature lets you take your accumulated live rewards and convert them into coins that sit in your coin balance.
Nigerian creators are reporting this works for smaller amounts – typically under 500-1000 coins worth of rewards. For larger amounts, the feature seems to hit regional restrictions again.
What’s the Point?
You might be thinking “okay but I still can’t cash out coins directly, so what’s the point?” Fair question. The point is that having coins gives you flexibility within TikTok’s ecosystem.
You can use those coins to send gifts to other creators and build relationships. You can use them to promote your own content if TikTok adds more promotional features that accept coins. You can also potentially sell those coins to the third-party exchangers mentioned above.
Some creators are even using this as a way to transfer value between accounts – converting gifts to coins on one account, gifting them to another account they control that’s set up in a different region, and cashing out from there. This is getting into grey area territory that might violate TikTok’s terms of service, so be aware of the risks.
Method 4: Crypto Wallet Integration (Emerging Option)
This is the newest development and it’s not fully available to everyone yet, but it’s worth knowing about because it might become the standard soon.
TikTok has been experimenting with integrated crypto wallets that would allow creators to receive payouts directly in cryptocurrency (USDT specifically) without needing PayPal or traditional bank transfers.
Some Nigerian creators with large followings have reported getting access to beta features that let them convert diamonds directly to USDT in an integrated wallet, then withdraw that USDT to external wallets or exchanges.
If you have this feature, the process is:
- Convert diamonds to USDT in TikTok’s integrated wallet
- Transfer USDT to a Nigerian exchange like Binance, Luno, or Quidax
- Sell USDT for naira through P2P trading
- Withdraw naira to your Nigerian bank account
This method is faster and more efficient than the PayPal route because you’re eliminating several conversion steps. The fees are also lower – typically just the blockchain transfer fee (which can be under $1 for USDT on certain networks) plus the P2P trading spread.
If you don’t see this feature yet, keep your app updated and check periodically. TikTok seems to be rolling it out gradually.