Kenya gazettes Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulations, splitting supervision between the central bank and capital markets authority

What happened

The Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulations, 2026 were gazetted on 24 July 2026 in Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 185 under Legal Notice No. 134. The regulations operationalise the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, which was assented to in October 2025, by creating the licensing framework under which Kenyan regulators can approve and supervise firms. Supervision is split. The Central Bank of Kenya takes responsibility for virtual-asset-to-fiat conversion services and stablecoin issuers. The Capital Markets Authority regulates exchanges, token issuance platforms, initial coin offerings and tokenization activity. Licensed firms must maintain governance frameworks, conduct customer due diligence, retain transaction records for at least seven years, file regular regulatory reports and implement cybersecurity and business continuity controls. Remote providers serving Kenyan customers are covered. During consultation, industry participants argued that proposed capital and compliance requirements risked excluding smaller operators. Kenyan reporting refers to a November 2026 compliance deadline.

Why it matters

Kenya is East Africa's largest digital-payments market, and the split between the central bank and the capital markets authority is the substantive design decision: it treats stablecoin issuance as a monetary and payments matter while treating tokenized instruments as securities activity. That division is closer to the UK and US models than to a single-regulator approach. The regulations also make Kenya one of the first African jurisdictions to move from primary legislation to an operative licensing regime, which gives regional firms a compliance template and gives foreign platforms a legal route to serve Kenyan users.

What is not settled

Minimum capital levels and licence fees in the gazetted text have not been reported, and the number of firms that will qualify before the compliance deadline is unknown.