Kenya’s Markets Regulator Seeks Blockchain Tool to Track Crypto Crime

Kenya’s securities regulator wants to buy a blockchain surveillance system to help police the country’s fast-growing crypto market, as it prepares to license and supervise virtual asset firms under a new law.

The Capital Markets Authority is seeking an advanced blockchain analytics platform to monitor digital asset transactions, investigate suspicious activity, and enforce compliance, according to tender documents seen by Capital FM Africa. The system would track Bitcoin, Ethereum, and at least 20 other blockchains, both in real time and retrospectively.

Tracking crypto flows

The platform would generate automated alerts for high-risk wallets, large transfers, coin mixers, darknet-linked addresses, and sanctioned entities, and screen transactions against United Nations and U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions lists.

It would also map relationships between wallets, reconstruct transaction timelines, trace funds across chains, and assign risk scores tied to money laundering, ransomware, fraud, and terrorism financing. The regulator said it wants to identify the exchanges most used by Kenyans and detect unlicensed offshore platforms serving the local market.

The described capabilities mirror those of tools sold by blockchain intelligence firms such as Chainalysis, TRM Labs, and Elliptic, which market similar software to governments and regulators worldwide.

Kenya’s new crypto regime

The purchase would support Kenya’s Virtual Assets Service Providers Act, which President William Ruto signed into law in October and which took effect in November, giving the country its first comprehensive crypto framework. The law splits oversight between the Central Bank of Kenya, covering payments, stablecoins, and custodial wallets, and the CMA, which regulates exchanges, brokers, investment advisers, and tokenization platforms, part of a broader push to align with anti-money-laundering standards set by the Financial Action Task Force.

No firms have been licensed yet. The National Treasury published draft regulations in March, and existing operators have until November 2026 to comply.

Kenya is one of Africa’s largest crypto markets. Residents received about $19 billion in crypto between July 2024 and June 2025, ranking the country fourth on the continent, according to Chainalysis, and more than six million Kenyans are estimated to use digital assets, much of it through informal, peer-to-peer channels.

Kenya is far from alone in reaching for such tools. In the U.S., Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved last year to buy forensics software from both TRM Labs and Chainalysis, which already hold contracts with the FBI, the DEA, and the IRS, while Britain’s tax authority, HMRC, has brought on TRM Labs to trace suspect transactions.