Digital Asset Regulatory Authority and the Virtual Assets Association of Kenya announced a partnership today to help more than 50 Kenyan digital asset firms meet the country’s new licensing requirements before a Nov. 4 deadline, and to keep those requirements workable for the Kenyans who use digital assets to send money home, pay suppliers and invest for a prosperous future.
The Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025, which took effect Nov. 4, 2025, requires anyone offering virtual asset services in or from Kenya to hold a license from the Central Bank of Kenya or the Capital Markets Authority. The National Treasury gazetted the implementing regulations on July 22, 2026, and under Section 47 of the act, firms already operating when the law took effect have until Nov. 4, 2026, to comply. That leaves weeks for exchanges, wallet providers, payment processors and stablecoin issuers to meet fit-and-proper tests, capital requirements that reach 300 million Kenyan shillings, or about $2 million, for stablecoin issuers, and new anti-money laundering and consumer protection obligations. Under the agreement, DARA will supply regulatory research and comparative analysis of how other jurisdictions have licensed virtual asset providers.
The two organizations will hold joint workshops for VAAK members on licensing, capital, governance and anti-money laundering requirements, coordinate engagement with Kenya’s regulators and international bodies, and work to align Kenya’s framework with the Financial Action Task Force’s recommendations on virtual assets.
“Kenya wrote a complete rulebook for virtual assets and gave the industry a firm date to comply. Our role is to support stakeholders to make sure Kenyan firms have the research, training and international perspective to get licensed and grow.”
The stakes reach well beyond the industry. Chainalysis, the blockchain analytics firm, ranks Kenya among the five largest recipients of on-chain crypto value in sub-Saharan Africa, a region where it says small retail transfers make up a larger share of activity than anywhere else in the world and stablecoins settle trade payments.
“Our members asked for clear rules, and Kenya delivered them. Now they have to meet those rules without losing the customers who depend on them. Working with DARA gives our smaller firms access to international expertise they could not otherwise reach.”
Kenya is among the first countries in East Africa to bring a complete licensing regime for virtual assets into force. DARA, which also works with industry bodies and policymakers elsewhere in Africa, said the partnership aims to help rules across the region converge rather than fragment.