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    Is crypto legal in Kenya?

    Not legal advice. Below are the regulators’ own words, quoted from their official pages on the dates shown. Laws and rules change: check the regulator’s site before you open an account.

    Facts verified on October 18, 2026

    In Kenya, the Virtual Assets Service Providers Act, 2025 names the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) as the regulators of virtual asset service providers (VASPs).

    The quotes below come from two public notices. The first is a joint notice of the CBK and the CMA dated November 18, 2025 and published on both regulators’ websites. It says that the Act was gazetted on October 21, 2025 and became effective on November 4, 2025, that the CBK and the CMA are responsible for licensing, supervising and regulating VASPs in Kenya, and that licensing would begin once the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury issues regulations under the Act. On the date of the notice, the two regulators said they had not licensed any VASP under the Act.

    The second is an earlier CBK notice on virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, dated December 2015, which says that such currencies are not legal tender in Kenya and explains what that means if a platform that exchanges or holds them fails.

    The quotes are in their original language, English, and carry the dates of the notices they come from. Both regulators are listed below with links to their websites.

    What the regulator says

    Regulators and registers

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