Nairobi becomes the centre of Africa's blockchain debate as regulation meets investment
The Africa Blockchain Festival will bring founders, investors, regulators and developers to Nairobi from October 15 to 17, but the timing gives the event a significance that goes well beyond another stop on the conference calendar.
Kenya enters the festival after months of reshaping how digital assets are regulated, while stablecoin payments, blockchain infrastructure and venture investment continue finding practical uses across Africa’s financial system. By the time delegates gather at Sarit Expo Centre, many of the debates that once played out in consultation rooms will already be unfolding inside licensed businesses.
The three-day event will run alongside the World Token Summit under the theme Capital, Code and Continuity: Building Africa’s Permanent Digital Economy. Organisers expect policymakers, financial institutions, venture capital firms, startups and technology companies working across blockchain, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and digital finance.
Why Nairobi became the next host city
The organisers describe Nairobi as the natural next destination after the inaugural festival in Kigali, where the 2025 edition drew 1,600 attendees from more than 15 countries, alongside 25 startups and over 40 speakers. Kenya’s fintech ecosystem, developer community and digital payments infrastructure make the case for expansion stronger than a simple change of venue.
That argument carries more weight when viewed against Kenya’s broader technology landscape. Mobile money became mainstream here long before many other markets embraced digital payments, and the country’s startup ecosystem has produced companies with regional reach across financial services, logistics and commerce.
The blockchain conversation has also matured. Earlier this year, the Kenya Blockchain & Crypto Conference brought together the Central Bank of Kenya, the Capital Markets Authority, Tether, Yellow Card, Luno, VALR, Kotani Pay, legal practitioners and industry executives for discussions that centred less on whether regulation was necessary than on what implementation would demand. Banking relationships, cyber-risk insurance, supervisory capacity and operational readiness emerged as the practical questions that would determine whether Kenya’s framework could work in the real world.
That makes Nairobi more than a convenient host city. It has become one of the places where Africa’s crypto policy debate has been unfolding in public.
Kenya’s crypto market arrives at a turning point
The strongest thread running beneath this year’s programme is regulation.
Kenya has spent much of the past year building out the framework created by the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, placing exchanges, wallet providers, stablecoin issuers and other virtual asset businesses under formal supervision by the Capital Markets Authority and the Central Bank of Kenya. Licensing requirements, governance standards, anti-money laundering controls and capital rules have replaced much of the legal uncertainty that previously defined the market.
Those reforms did not emerge in isolation. Kenya’s placement on the Financial Action Task Force grey list in 2024 accelerated efforts to strengthen oversight of virtual assets as part of wider anti-money laundering reforms across multiple agencies.
The implementation story has already moved beyond legislation. Several international and African firms—including Binance, Yellow Card, Luno, VALR and Kotani Pay—have confirmed plans to seek licences under the new framework, turning what began as a policy debate into operational planning.
That is why one session stands out.
The festival’s keynote on “Kenya’s VASP Act and What It Means for Everyone in This Room” lands at a moment when companies are no longer reading draft regulations. They are preparing businesses to operate within them.
Stablecoins have become the real infrastructure story
One of the clearest patterns in both the festival agenda and Kenya’s regulatory rollout is the growing importance of stablecoins.
The programme dedicates multiple sessions to stablecoin payments, central bank digital currencies, cross-border settlement and digital identity. Those topics mirror how the technology is being used across the continent, where businesses rely on dollar-backed digital assets for remittances, merchant payments, treasury management and international settlement rather than speculative trading alone.
Kenya’s own regulations help explain why stablecoins occupy so much space on the agenda. The government has already prohibited licensed firms from paying interest on stablecoins, defining them primarily as payment instruments rather than digital savings products, while reserve and redemption requirements reinforce that role within the financial system.
The direction matches what industry participants had already been discussing months before implementation began. At earlier policy forums, executives repeatedly described stablecoins as infrastructure for moving money more efficiently across borders rather than products designed to compete directly with traditional savings accounts.
That distinction matters because it shows regulators and industry have been debating the same question from different angles: how to preserve useful payment technology without allowing new risks to migrate into the financial system unchecked.
Venture capital is still backing blockchain
The investment picture also looks different than headline funding totals suggest.
According to the CV VC African Blockchain Report, published with Absa Bank Kenya, blockchain accounted for 5.3% of Africa’s venture funding in 2025—almost double the global average. African blockchain startups raised $90.1 million across 28 deals, while the sector represented 6.9% of all venture transactions on the continent.
Those figures align neatly with the audience the festival hopes to attract.
Investor forums, startup pitch competitions and venture networking feature prominently across the programme, including pitch finals scheduled before an audience of investors and delegates on the second day.
The funding conversation also sits alongside a broader commercial reality. Kenya remains one of Africa’s largest crypto markets, with Chainalysis estimating roughly $19 billion in crypto inflows between July 2024 and June 2025. That commercial activity helps explain why international firms continue investing in regulatory compliance while venture capital remains interested in payment infrastructure, tokenised finance and enterprise blockchain products.
The festival’s agenda reflects where the market is heading
The programme itself offers a snapshot of where blockchain conversations have moved.
Day one centres on capital markets, regulation and institutional finance, with discussions covering real-world asset tokenisation, stablecoins and regulatory roundtables. Day two shifts toward developers through smart contract workshops, AI and blockchain integration, creator economy sessions and hackathon demonstrations. The closing day moves into invitation-only networking and partnership events before organisers announce plans for the next edition.
The speaker lineup reflects that balance between policy, investment and technical leadership. Participants include John Kamara, chairman of the Africa Blockchain Centre, representatives from VALR, Raenest, Launch Africa Ventures, the Rwanda Blockchain Association and executives working across blockchain infrastructure, legal compliance and venture capital.
Sponsors such as Binance, OKX, Cardano Foundation, Polygon, Tether and Animoca Brands reinforce the international dimension. The conversations will not revolve solely around Kenyan startups; they will include companies already competing to build regulated businesses across multiple African markets.
What to watch in October
The biggest question hanging over the festival is no longer whether blockchain has captured attention.
The harder question is whether Kenya’s regulatory overhaul can coexist with the faster payment systems, digital identity projects and investment activity the industry wants to build.
That tension already exists outside conference halls. Companies are preparing licence applications, compliance expectations have become more demanding, banks remain a crucial piece of the ecosystem, and regulators are moving from writing rules to supervising businesses that intend to operate under them.
Those practical questions first surfaced publicly during the Kenya Blockchain & Crypto Conference, where industry leaders warned that implementation—not legislation—would determine whether the framework ultimately succeeds.
By October, those conversations will have moved another step forward.
For founders seeking investment, financial institutions exploring tokenised assets and regulators shaping digital finance, the discussions at Africa Blockchain Festival will unfold against a market that is already changing. The conference will not simply introduce Africa’s next blockchain conversation. It will provide a stage for debates that have already begun to reshape how digital assets fit into Kenya’s economy.
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