(NAIROBI, KENYA) – Kenya is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to adopt a global anti money laundering standard known as the Travel Rule, as digital asset transactions in the country reach record levels.
Kenyans transferred KES 740 billion ($5.7 billion) worth of cryptocurrencies in the year to June 2026. This makes Kenya Africa’s third largest crypto economy after South Africa and Nigeria.
The Travel Rule requires crypto exchanges and other virtual asset service providers to collect, verify and share identifying information about senders and recipients during transfers. The rule is a requirement of the Financial Action Task Force, the global watchdog against money laundering and terrorist financing.
Kenya’s current rules require crypto firms to keep customer and transaction records. However, they do not require firms to share identifying information between platforms or with authorities.
The lack of this requirement is a major gap in Kenya’s compliance with international standards. The country has been on the FATF grey list since February 2024, meaning it is under increased monitoring.
Crypto transactions have traditionally offered a degree of anonymity, making it difficult for authorities to establish who is behind a transfer. While blockchain transactions are recorded on public ledgers, wallet addresses do not necessarily reveal the identities of the people controlling them.
This has made digital assets attractive to criminals seeking to move proceeds of fraud, drug trafficking and terrorism financing. It has also created opportunities to conceal transactions and evade taxes.
Under the proposed rule, the originating platform would collect the sender’s full name, account reference and either their physical address or national identification number, alongside the wallet address. The receiving platform would obtain the beneficiary’s name, account reference and wallet address.
This would allow the receiving exchange to screen the sender against sanctions lists, assess the origin and destination of funds and flag suspicious activity. It would also help Kenya’s Financial Reporting Centre investigate suspicious transactions.
Analysis by Chainalysis, a blockchain data platform, shows that digital assets are increasingly being used in Kenya for cross border payments, remittances, investments and payments for goods and services. Stablecoins, whose value is pegged to stable assets such as the US dollar, are particularly popular.
The IMF says Kenya has a high prevalence of peer to peer transactions, which market participants have linked to scams.
Different jurisdictions have taken various approaches to implementing the rule. The FATF baseline requires information sharing for transfers above $1,000 (KES 129,950) or €1,000 (KES 145,190).
The European Union applies the requirements to all crypto transfers regardless of value. The United Kingdom and Japan also apply a zero threshold.
In the United States, virtual asset service providers must pass on identifying information for transfers valued at $3,000 (KES 389,760) or higher. In South Korea, domestic providers must exchange verified customer data before executing transfers of or above 1 million KRW (KES 97,100).