A few years ago, digital assets in Kenya could not get a bank to open accounts for them and had to take up mobile money whose daily transaction The boundaries are much lower. Now one of three banks is ready to dare to be in digital assets, according to a new report from the country’s central bank.
In its 2024 Innovation Survey, Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) revealed that “31 percent of respondents indicated that they were very likely to perform activities in the field of virtual assets,” including digital currencies such as BSV, non-fungal tokens (NFT) and other digital symbols.
Kenya has been one of the global leaders in adoption, Ranking First globally for peer-to-peer digital asset transaction volume 2020 and 2021. It has also ranked high for overall assumption every year ago, with South Africa and Nigeria The only African countries with more users.
But as in most African countries, the banking industry has controlled away from the sector. For several years, most Kenyan banks denied service to VASPs and all persons whose account was linked to digital asset platforms. In some cases, they turned off accounts that they thought would act in ‘Crypto.’
Times have changed, and with adoption sky rocketing, the lenders are now warming up to the sector, CBK revealed.
“Financial institutions indicated its interest in virtual assets, noted the potential opportunities for virtual assets to improve financial access to the unstable by providing alternative payment and investment channels, improving transaction rates and reducing transaction costs,” the report noted.
2022, UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Estimated that four million Kenyans owned digital assets. Other newer reports set this number to over six million, which accounts for over 10% of the population. The country’s tax agency chairman has abandoned That during the financial year 2022 met the total market sales for digital assets. 2.4 trillion ($ 19 billion).
While the banks have warmed up to digital assets, they are cautious with associated risks “as challenges to maintain anti-allowance (AML) and combat the financing of terrorism (CFT) controls, cyber security risks, fraud and high volatility among other things,” the CBK report is stated.
Kenya still lacks extensive regulations for the digital asset sector, which limits the commitment to very regulated units such as banks. Like most jurisdictions, the authorities have had to apply general fintech laws to the sector. But the nuances of digital assets, such as their decentralized nature or high volatility, prevent this application.
This can change soon. Legislators weigh a new bill to legalize digital assets and set rails to protect investors. However, the digital asset sector is fighting Getting certain sections changed, such as a 1.5% digital asset tax on each transaction before the bill passes.
In addition to the banks, Innovation Survey also noted that Stablecoin’s appearance in the East African nation has increased steadily, especially in cross -border payments.
Uber weighs digital asset payments
Somewhere else, ride giant uber (Nasdaq: Uber) again considering integrating digital asset payments, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has revealed.
Khosrowshahi spoke at a technical conference and said that the company is in the “study phase”, but leans more towards Stablecoins.
“I think Stablecoins is one of the more interesting bodies of crypto that has a practical advantage in addition to being a store of value,” he abandoned At Bloomberg Tech Summit in San Francisco.
“Stablecoins seem pretty promising, especially because global companies are moving money around internationally. It’s super interesting for us, and we will definitely look.”
This is not the first time Uber claims to explore digital assets. In 2021, Khosrowshahi stated that the company weighed payments of digital assets but would not follow Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) to buy BTC in the balance sheet. But nothing came from this promise.
Uber was also a member of Metas (Nasdaq: Meta) Ill-Fated Vibra-Cum-Diem StableCoin Project, like Mark Zuckerberg Abandoned 2022 After being frustrated by supervisory authorities globally.
Whether Uber follows up its latest Stablecoin promise remains to be seen. At the same time, dozens of other Giants are rushing in Finance, Tech and Beyond to integrate Stablecoins into their companies or launch the new Stablecoins themselves.
Among those who want to challenge prosecutors like Tether and Recently listed publicly Circle (Nasdaq: CRCL) is a conglomerate of the best US banks. Led by jpmorgan (Nasdaq: JPM) and citi (Nasdaq: c), the banks reportedly Met a week ago to discuss a joint effort to launch a uniform Stablecoin.
In Europe, Germany’s largest lender, Deutsche Bank (Nasdaq: db), is too exploration Whether it is to issue its Stablecoin or launch a joint initiative with other top banks.
See: Tech redefines how things are done – Africa is here for it
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