Kenya: National Treasury closes consultation on Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulations 2026 including user identification requirements

On 10 April 2026, the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury closes the consultation on the draft Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulations 2026. The Regulations are issued pursuant to section 49 of the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act 2025 (Act No. 20 of 2025). Regulation 21 requires licensees to record all activity and transactions on their distributed ledger technology platforms, retain records for at least seven years, and provide records to the relevant regulatory authority on request, including technical metadata such as wallet addresses, transaction hashes, network identifiers and timestamps. Regulation 32 requires licensees to identify and verify the identity of consumers prior to onboarding in accordance with obligations under the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act (Cap. 59A). Regulation 33 requires virtual asset exchanges and token issuance platform providers to perform due diligence on all virtual assets before admission for trading, including assessment of regulatory status, supply, demand, maturity, liquidity, complexity and risks. Where a virtual asset is based on a smart contract, an independent assessor must audit the smart contract before admission for trading. Regulation 38 requires the relevant regulatory authorities to maintain continuous surveillance of market conduct, transactional activity and systemic risk using data analytics and reporting tools. Nationwide public participation forums were held between 30 March and 10 April 2026.