Kenya nears legal crypto framework

Kenya has finished public consultations on draft 2026 rules for crypto businesses, moving closer to a licensed market for virtual-asset firms. (treasury.go.ke) The National Treasury posted the draft Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulations and a regulatory impact statement on March 18, 2026, and set April 10, 2026 as the deadline for comments. The notice said the rules were developed with the Central Bank of Kenya and the Capital Markets Authority. (treasury.go.ke) The consultation schedule listed forums from March 30 to April 10 in Mombasa, Kisii, Kisumu, Makueni, Garissa, Meru, Nakuru and Nairobi, among other locations. Nairobi’s session was set for April 10, covering Nairobi and Kiambu counties. (treasury.go.ke) A virtual asset service provider is a company that runs crypto exchanges, wallets, token sales or related services. Kenya’s draft 2026 rules set out licensing, renewals, revocations, inspections, compliance officers, risk management and record-keeping requirements for those firms. (treasury.go.ke) The draft also goes beyond spot trading. Its table of contents includes rules for initial coin offerings, listing requirements for virtual-asset exchanges, tokenized real-world assets, wallet providers and stablecoin issuers. (treasury.go.ke) These regulations follow Kenya’s Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025, which was assented to on October 15, 2025, published in the Kenya Gazette on October 21, 2025 and commenced on November 4, 2025. The law created the base legal framework for licensing and regulating virtual-asset businesses. (kenyalaw.org) The Capital Markets Authority’s website now lists the draft regulations, the public notice, the impact statement and a comment template dated March 17 and March 18, 2026. That indicates the process has moved from passing the law to writing the operating rules firms would actually have to follow. (cma.or.ke) Kenya’s regulators had warned the public about crypto for years before Parliament passed the 2025 law. A January 2026 legal analysis by Clifford Chance’s Africa partner firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr said the new Act marked a shift from earlier caution by the Central Bank of Kenya and the Capital Markets Authority toward a supervised regime. (cdhlegal.com) The next step is not another policy speech but final legal text. Once Kenya publishes the final regulations under the 2025 Act, crypto exchanges, wallet operators and token issuers will have a formal route to apply for authorization in and from Kenya. (treasury.go.ke)