News, data and analysis on tokenized assets, market design and digital economic systems.
The Nairobi Securities Exchange is Kenya's securities exchange, registered as a voluntary association of stockbrokers in 1954, demutualised and self-listed on its own main board in 2014, and now regulated by the Capital Markets Authority across equities, fixed income, exchange traded funds and the NEXT derivatives market.
Share dealing in Nairobi began in the 1920s on informal terms, without a trading floor; the exchange was registered as a voluntary association of stockbrokers under the Societies Act in 1954, and moved to open outcry in 1991. The Capital Markets Authority, which regulates the exchange, approved demutualisation in June 2014, and in September the exchange listed its own shares on its main investment market segment, the second African exchange to self-list after Johannesburg. It also runs the growth enterprise market segment for smaller companies, fixed income markets for government and corporate bonds, exchange traded funds, real estate investment trusts, the NEXT derivatives market covering equity index futures, single stock futures and options, and the Unquoted Securities Platform for unquoted companies. The NSE 20, NSE 25 and NSE All Share Index (NASI) track prices. The regulator put market capitalisation at KES 3,230.73bn across 67 listed counters at end-March 2026. The exchange's 2025-2029 strategy targets nine million retail investors and 40 new listings. On 28 July 2026 it signed a memorandum of understanding with Tether covering securities tokenization, settlement and investor education; the memorandum commits neither party to build anything.
Developments in which Nairobi Securities Exchange is a named party, newest first.
A memorandum of understanding puts securities tokenization, blockchain settlement and investor education on the table at East Africa's largest exchange, with the role of USDT still undefined.
Tether and the Nairobi Securities Exchange announced a memorandum of understanding on 28 July 2026 covering investor education, blockchain-based infrastructure for securities tokenization and instant settlement, streamlined anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer onboarding under Kenyan rules, and asset tokenization on Tether's Hadron platform, with what the release calls potential integration of USDT as a settlement layer. The memorandum binds neither party to build anything and names no timetable, pilot or regulatory approval.
What issued, what settled, what the supervisors changed, with the numbers behind it and a note on what the numbers do not show. One email, Thursday mornings.
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