Kenya has inched closer to formal crypto regulation after its National Assembly approved the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Bill at the committee stage on Thursday. The draft law now heads to a third reading before being sent to President William Ruto for assent.
The bill marks Kenya’s most decisive step yet in regulating digital assets, positioning the country to become East Africa’s most advanced jurisdiction for crypto. Kenya, one of Africa’s top five biggest crypto markets, is signalling that it wants to attract investment and innovation while tightening oversight of a fast-growing market that has until now thrived in regulatory grey zones.
The new legislation establishes the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) as primary regulators and empowers the Treasury to craft detailed rules. The Treasury Secretary will issue subsidiary regulations covering stablecoin issuance, tokenisation of real-world assets (RWAs), trading platforms, capital and solvency requirements, cybersecurity and advertising standards, as well as anti-money laundering (AML) compliance for virtual asset providers.
The move aligns Kenya with a wider continental shift. South Africa has licenced 248 crypto service providers, Nigeria has launched a sandbox programme for a crypto licencing pathway and is developing a tax framework for digital assets, and Mauritius already enforces FATF-aligned rules.
Bank of Ghana (BOG) is also expected to table its VASP Bill before Parliament. Although the BOG has not issued a submission timeline yet, the draft regulation—which was developed in collaboration with the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC)—will provide a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency exchanges, custodians, and service providers.
For Kenya, where crypto use is widespread in informal remittances and trading, the shift marks a turning point. Clear rules could open the door for fintech startups to openly integrate digital assets, tokenisation ventures, and global crypto firms eager to expand into Kenya, one of Africa’s most dynamic digital asset economies.
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