The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged Kenya to compel cryptocurrency firms to share customer identification data with the government as part of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Travel Rule.
The fund says a legal obligation should require crypto-asset service providers to obtain, hold and transmit originator and beneficiary information – including full names, national ID numbers, physical addresses and wallet addresses – to the receiving platform and to Kenya’s Financial Reporting Centre (FRC).
The IMF recommends that the requirement be incorporated into the recently published Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Regulations or another appropriate legal instrument without delay.
Kenya has been on the FATF grey list since February 2024 because of loopholes in countering money laundering and terrorism financing, and the IMF notes a significant gap in meeting FATF’s Travel Rule requirements for crypto transfers.
Proper implementation, the IMF says, would enable crypto platforms to carry out sanctions screening and detect suspicious transactions that should be reported to the FRC.
Chainalysis data show Kenyans wired a record KSh740 billion (about $5.7 billion) in cryptocurrencies to June 2026, making Kenya Africa’s third-largest crypto economy after South Africa and Nigeria, with stablecoins dominating transactions and bitcoin accounting for roughly 2 per cent.
Kenya’s existing crypto regulations already require customer identification and a 3 per cent digital-asset tax remitted to the Kenya Revenue Authority; the IMF’s proposal adds a step of sharing that identification data between exchanges and the FRC, ending the anonymity that has characterised crypto trading.
The IMF argues that without such requirements, criminals can use crypto to launder money, run scams and finance terrorism.
