Key facts
- Kenya's Capital Markets Authority (CMA) is seeking a blockchain analytics platform.
- The tool will monitor Bitcoin, Ethereum, and at least 20 other blockchains.
- It aims to detect fraud, money laundering, terrorism financing, and sanctions evasion.
- This initiative follows the Virtual Assets Service Providers Act of 2025.
- The platform will screen transactions against UN and OFAC sanctions lists.
Kenya's Capital Markets Authority (CMA) is actively seeking to procure a blockchain analytics platform to enhance its oversight of the nation's virtual assets market. This move is a direct response to the recent Virtual Assets Service Providers Act of 2025, which has brought Kenya's cryptocurrency sector under formal regulatory scrutiny for the first time. The CMA intends to use the advanced system to monitor digital asset transactions, identify suspicious activities such as fraud, money laundering, terrorism financing, and sanctions evasion, and ensure overall compliance.
The proposed platform is expected to track transactions across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and at least 20 other blockchain networks, providing both real-time and retrospective analysis. Key functionalities will include generating automated alerts for high-risk wallets, significant transfers, the use of coin mixers, darknet-linked addresses, and entities on sanctions lists, including those from the United Nations and the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The system will also map wallet interconnections, reconstruct transaction timelines, trace funds across different blockchains, and assign risk scores related to illicit financial activities.
Furthermore, the CMA aims to leverage this technology to identify the most frequently used exchanges by Kenyan users and to detect unlicensed offshore platforms that may be serving the local market. The capabilities described align with those offered by leading blockchain intelligence firms like Chainalysis, TRM Labs, and Elliptic, which provide similar tools to governments and regulatory bodies globally. This initiative supports Kenya's comprehensive crypto framework, established by the Virtual Assets Service Providers Act signed by President William Ruto in October and effective since November. The law divides regulatory responsibilities, with the Central Bank of Kenya overseeing payments and stablecoins, and the CMA managing exchanges, brokers, and investment advisers, in alignment with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) anti-money-laundering standards.
While no firms have been licensed yet, draft regulations were published in March, and existing operators have until November 2026 to comply. Kenya is recognized as a significant player in Africa's crypto market, with Chainalysis data indicating residents received approximately $19 billion in crypto between July 2024 and June 2025, ranking fourth on the continent. An estimated six million Kenyans use digital assets, often through informal peer-to-peer channels. Kenya's pursuit of such tools is part of a global trend, with U.S. agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Britain's HMRC also acquiring similar blockchain forensics software.