Kenya Cut the Price of a Crypto Licence by as Much as 95% Before Publishing the Rules

Kenya has published the rules that decide who may run a crypto business in the country, and the cost of getting in is far lower than the government proposed four months ago. A levy on every exchange trade was dropped, and a cap on who may own a crypto firm disappeared.

The Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulations, 2026 appeared as Legal Notice No. 134 in Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 185, dated 22 July 2026 and circulated on Friday 24 July. They took effect on publication. We already covered the moment President Ruto signed the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act into law in October 2025. That Act created the offence of operating without a licence but never explained how to get one. These Regulations, 151 of them across 15 Parts, are that missing process.

The capital requirements came down sharply

When Treasury published its draft in March, the minimum capital figures drew the loudest objection from the industry. Robert Salim, chief executive of the Virtual Asset Association of Kenya, a lobby of more than 50 firms, said the draft “risks recreating an IPO-level regime for even modest token raises”. Most Kenyan token raises are under KES 50 million to KES 100 million, he said, and pushing them through the same disclosure machine as a Nairobi Securities Exchange listing “will drive projects offshore or underground”.

Treasury moved. It has not said why.

Only wallet providers face the same number they did in March. Everyone else pays less, and a virtual asset investment adviser now needs no minimum capital at all.

Licence fees follow the same pattern. An exchange licence now costs KES 1 million rather than the KES 2 million proposed, on top of a KES 100,000 application fee. An investment adviser pays KES 10,000 to apply and KES 50,000 for the licence. Renewals for an exchange are KES 500,000 or 0.5% of the previous year’s gross revenue, whichever is higher, softened from a proposed 2%. Payment processors renew on a sliding scale tied to volume, from KES 20,000 for those moving under KES 1 billion a year up to KES 15 million above KES 1 trillion.

Two other costs vanished completely

The draft would have charged a transaction fee of 0.05% of the value of every trade an exchange facilitated, payable by each counterparty, with the same levy on token issuance platforms. That is a tax on trading itself, paid twice on every deal. It does not appear in the gazetted schedule at all.

The fee for approving a virtual asset offering also changed shape. The draft set it at 0.5% of the value of a successful offer with no ceiling. The final version halves the rate to 0.25% and caps it at KES 30 million.

Draft regulation 28 would have barred any person from controlling more than 33.3% of an exchange, stablecoin issuer or wallet provider. That cap is gone. In its place, regulation 29 requires notification below 10% ownership and regulatory approval above it, with anti-avoidance provisions for anyone using proxies or trimming a stake to duck the threshold.

Who regulates what

Supervision splits between two regulators by activity, not by company.

The Central Bank of Kenya takes wallet providers, payment processors and stablecoin issuers. The Capital Markets Authority takes exchanges, brokers, investment advisers, virtual asset managers, initial coin offerings, tokenisation and token issuance platforms.

Several outlets have reported that CBK oversees crypto-to-shilling conversion. Under the Act’s First Schedule, conversion sits inside the definition of a virtual asset exchange, which is a CMA activity. A firm running an exchange alongside its own custodial wallet will answer to both. The rules also reach companies based abroad that serve Kenyan customers.

The deadline is 4 November, and it is not new

Existing operators have until 4 November 2026. That date comes from section 47 of the Act, which gave anyone already providing virtual asset services one year from commencement to comply. The Act commenced on 4 November 2025, so the clock has been running for nine months. What changed last week is that complying became possible.

Applicants must be locally incorporated. Boards need at least three directors, a third of them independent, and the chairperson cannot also be chief executive. Applications require a business plan, three years of audited accounts, proof of the source of funds, AML policies, and cybersecurity and complaints procedures.

The regulator then has 30 days to decide once it has everything. After that you have 12 months to start trading or the licence lapses. Material changes must be reported within two days. Records must be kept for seven years.

Breaching the Regulations carries administrative fines of up to KES 3 million for an individual and KES 5 million for a company, plus suspension or revocation. Criminal offences, including market manipulation and front-running, carry up to KES 5 million and five years, or KES 8 million for a company. Operating with no licence at all is punished under the Act itself, and harder: KES 10 million and five years, or KES 25 million for a company.

What changes if you hold crypto

Licensed firms must hold customer assets separately from their own, with systems and controls to protect them from third-party claims. If a platform fails, your coins are not supposed to be part of the wreckage. We already covered what happens when they are not segregated, when CBEX collapsed and took Kenyan and Nigerian savings with it.

Stablecoin issuers must issue and redeem at par value, and must process a redemption request within two working days. White papers go to CBK for approval 90 days before publication. That matters given how many Kenyans now hold stablecoins as a dollar savings account, something we tested first-hand with Hurupay’s virtual dollar accounts.

A whole Part governs how virtual assets may be advertised, including internet and influencer promotion, with mandatory risk warnings and a ban on cold calling.

Nobody has a licence yet

CBK’s last public statement, in November 2025, was that neither it nor the CMA had licensed a single provider. Nothing has been announced since, no company has said publicly that it intends to apply, and no application portal has been published.

The rules exist, the entry price has been cut, and the deadline is about 14 weeks away. Between now and November, the thing to watch is whether the platform you use says anything at all about applying.

Every figure in this article was read directly from the two primary documents: Legal Notice No. 134 of 2026 and the National Treasury’s draft Regulations published in March. See also the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, No. 20 of 2025, the CBK public notice on commencement, and the National Treasury Regulatory Impact Statement.