Virtual Assets Chamber Launches Standards Council and Virtual Assets Institute to Build Institutional Infrastructure for Africa’s Virtual Asset Market. This, writes Maryanne Njuguna, the Chamber's Business Development Lead and Policy, signals a shift from informal experimentation toward a structured, professionally governed ecosystem ahead of the VASP regulations.
Kenya is moving. The release of the draft Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) Regulations 2026 marks a departure from purely fiscal interest toward a comprehensive oversight regime. With a feedback window closing on April 10, 2026, the industry is currently mobilizing to ensure these rules build a bridge to global markets rather than a wall around the local ecosystem.
While the VASP Act, 2025 serves as the broad framework, the current draft regulations provide the operational "how-to". For these rules to actually work on the ground, they require public participation. Leading this charge is the Virtual Assets Chamber of Commerce (VACC). As a policy think tank, the group is working to ensure Kenya remains a viable home for digital asset businesses by setting higher professional standards.
The High Stakes of Regulatory Design
Heavy fees risk stifling the industry before it has the mass to survive. At the Office of the Special Envoy Roundtable on March 26, 2026, participants pointed to India’s experience, where aggressive taxation led to a massive exodus of capital, as a cautionary tale. Kenya must remain commercially viable for startups to avoid a similar collapse.
The VACC is currently tackling some of the main pillars of concern within the draft:
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•Licensing and Renewal Fees: There is a need for streamlined and structured licensing that could pave the way for licence passporting.
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•Capital Requirements: High capital requirement may work against local innovative, closing the door to innovative solutions.
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•The Compliance Burden:The frequency of manual reporting acts as a resource drain that leaves little room for actual technical innovation.
The Chamber is advocating for a tiered licensing regime instead. This ensures that fees and capital requirements stay proportionate to the size and risk of the provider, keeping the market accessible for local innovators.
Real Action Through the Standards Council
Taking its work beyond simple lobbying, VACC recently launched the Virtual Assets Standards Council. Set to serve as a coordination forum for regulators, financial institutions, and market participants across Africa.
Instead of just waiting for the government to hand down technical rules, the Chamber is setting industry benchmarks for stablecoins and tokenized assets. They want to move the sector away from being seen only as crypto exchanges and toward being recognized as the infrastructure for the future of finance. This involves proving that onchain lending and 24/7 settlement actually works for the Kenyan market today.
Solving the Knowledge Gap - The Virtual Assets Institute
At the roundtable, Ambassador Philip Thigo reminded the industry that regulators require time and data to build capacity. For maximum effectiveness, every proposal should have proven facts, comparative analysis, and data to back it up.
The VACC has responded by launching the Virtual Assets Institute. Designed to address one of the sector’s most pressing challenges: the shortage of professionals who understand both the technology and the institutional environment.
The Chamber’s initiatives are designed to ensure the industry is ready with standards, coordination, and professional capacity in place as regulation develops.
A Unified Roadmap to April 10
The Chamber’s initiatives are designed to ensure the industry is ready with standards, coordination, and professional capacity in place as regulation develops. The Virtual Assets Chamber outlined five strategic priorities to ensure the implementation of the Act supports growth:
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•Capacity Building: Technical training for regulatory agencies to oversee a fast-moving sector.
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•Reciprocity: Mechanisms where licenses from comparable jurisdictions are recognized to reduce friction.
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•Ease of Business: Adjusting fees and capital requirements to be proportionate to provider size.
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•Resolving the Banking Deadlock: Addressing the "chicken and egg" scenario where a VASP cannot get licensed without proving capital, yet cannot open a bank account to hold that capital without a license.
As the April 10 deadline approaches, the VACC remains a quality vehicle for a unified industry response. The Chamber invites stakeholders to make submissions through their collective platform to ensure a single, powerful voice.
