Kenya’s public participation on Draft VASP Regulations 2026 has ended, pushing the country closer to a full licensing and oversight regime for virtual assets.
The deadline passed. Kenya’s public participation window on the Draft Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulations, 2026 is now shut. Stakeholders submitted. The National Treasury collects what came in.
According to @KeTreasury on X, the next step is review and consolidation of those submissions ahead of finalizing the regulations. The post confirmed the draft rules are built to operationalize the VASP Act, 2025 — a law President William Ruto signed in October last year.
Three institutions share oversight under the framework. The National Treasury, the Central Bank of Kenya, and the Capital Markets Authority each hold a piece of it. CBK takes payment firms and stablecoin dealers. CMA supervises exchanges, brokers, and tokenization platforms.
What the Draft Actually Demands
Consumer protection sits inside the framework. Risk disclosures. Transparent pricing. Complaints handling. Strict segregation of customer assets. Those provisions landed in the same draft text alongside market integrity tools — due diligence before listing virtual assets, continuous monitoring, and a stated zero tolerance for manipulation and insider trading.
Fit and proper ownership requirements make it in too. Capital thresholds. Governance standards. AML and CFT compliance obligations.
That capital piece already drew fire. Startups and industry groups pushed back hard, with stablecoin issuers facing a Sh500 million paid-up capital requirement under the draft. Whether consolidation softens any of that — or holds the line — stays unknown until finalization.
The @KeTreasury post on X described virtual assets, including cryptocurrencies, tokenized assets, and stablecoins, as reshaping global finance. Kenya’s stated aim, the post said, is harnessing that shift while safeguarding financial stability and protecting consumers.
Fifty Firms Are Watching
Cybersecurity incident reporting is also in there. Mandatory audits. Insurance requirements. Onsite and offsite supervision. The resilience provisions stack up. Continuous reporting requirements round that list out.
The timing matters. More than 50 crypto firms, Binance among them, have been eyeing Nairobi as a regional base. Several made it plain their decisions hinge on what the finalized rules actually say. Kenya ranks third in Africa for crypto adoption. An estimated 733,300 people in the country hold digital assets.
The Treasury’s post framed this as a whole-of-government push. @CBKKenya and @CMAKenya both named as part of the coordinated oversight structure. Three bodies, one framework.
What changes from the public input, and what stays, gets answered during consolidation. Finalization follows that. Firms circling Nairobi are waiting on exactly that answer.