Kenya seeks blockchain tool for crypto oversight

• Kenya's Capital Markets Authority is seeking a blockchain analytics platform to monitor cryptocurrency transactions across more than 20 blockchains.
• The system will support enforcement of Kenya's new Virtual Assets Service Providers Act and help detect fraud, money laundering and sanctions evasion.
• The regulator plans to use the platform as it prepares to license and supervise virtual asset service providers by November 2026.

Kenya's Capital Markets Authority announced plans to procure a blockchain analytics platform to monitor cryptocurrency transactions across Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) and at least 20 other blockchain networks under the country's new digital asset law.

The procurement follows the introduction of the Virtual Assets Service Providers Act 2025, which took effect in November and established Kenya's first comprehensive regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency sector.

The proposed platform would generate alerts for high-risk wallets, large transfers, coin mixers, darknet-linked addresses and sanctioned entities, while tracing funds across blockchains, assigning risk scores and identifying exchanges used by Kenyan investors and unlicensed offshore platforms.

The surveillance system is intended to support the licensing and supervision of virtual asset service providers, and no market reaction was available because the Capital Markets Authority is a government regulator rather than a listed company.

The Virtual Assets Service Providers Act divides oversight between the Central Bank of Kenya, which supervises payments, stablecoins and custodial wallets, and the Capital Markets Authority, which regulates exchanges, brokers, investment advisers and tokenisation platforms.

Kenya received approximately US$19 billion in cryptocurrency between July 2024 and June 2025 according to Chainalysis, while existing virtual asset operators have until November 2026 to comply with the country's new regulatory framework.

At the time of reporting, Bitcoin price was $63,505.05.