Crypto News Africa: Kenya Warns About 15 Investment Platforms

Kenya is taking a tougher stance on online financial scams. The Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has identified 15 entities suspected of illegally soliciting funds from the public, including CBEX, QVSE, Bitblock Capital and Ultima Cryptocurrency. Several use crypto, forex or promises of automated trading to attract investors. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations is now working with the regulator and other government agencies on the investigation.

Crypto News Africa: 15 Names Under Scrutiny

The list published by the CMA includes Global Investment Group, QVSE, Kore Exchange, Abacus Wealth Management, Brown Advisory Group, B Invest, Bitblock Capital Limited, Maliwave Investments, Monetrix Capital Investments, Twenty-four Hours Pro Expert Trader, Wealth Sharing Group — also presented as Opticoin —, CBEX, Just Markets, Ultima Cryptocurrency and Lukman-trust Fund.

This crackdown comes as Kenya is also tightening its oversight of stablecoins and digital asset platforms.

According to the CMA, these entities do not hold the licences or authorisations required to provide the relevant investment services in Kenya. They are now the subject of active investigations involving the DCI.

The case of QVSE is particularly telling. According to an investigation published by Kenya Insights, Quant Vest Stock Exchange was promoted to Kenyan investors as a platform that enabled them to copy trades in Apple, Tesla and Nvidia, among others, with an entry amount of approximately 65,000 Kenyan shillings.

The platform also used references to US regulatory authorities. Registration with FinCEN as a Money Services Business does not, however, constitute a licence to operate a securities exchange.

CBEX Had Already Caused Damage in Nigeria

One name extends well beyond Kenya’s borders: CBEX.

The platform had already triggered a crisis in Nigeria in April 2025 after freezing its users’ accounts. It promised returns of up to 100% in thirty days through transactions supposedly based on crypto, forex and artificial intelligence.

Estimates of the losses varied widely. Some initial figures pointed to several hundred million dollars, while subsequent on-chain analyses arrived at significantly lower amounts. It is therefore still inappropriate to present the highest estimates as definitively established losses.

The reappearance of the CBEX name in Kenya is nevertheless significant.

The use of crypto in African fraud does not mean that crypto activity as a whole is criminal. Bref Crypto recently reported that less than 1% of attributed on-chain flows were considered illicit in 2025, according to Chainalysis.

The problem instead stems from the combination of unrealistic return promises, referral-based recruitment and rapid transfers of capital.

Kenya saw another example this year when an investor lost 431,380 USDT in a fake gold-selling operation in Nairobi.

A Foreign Licence Is Not Enough in Kenya

However, the CMA’s list contains an important nuance.

Not all of the companies named are necessarily shell companies. Kenya Insights notes in particular that Just Markets belongs to a group holding licences in several jurisdictions, including Mauritius and South Africa.

The issue is different: being regulated elsewhere does not mean being authorised to solicit Kenyan investors.

This distinction is becoming particularly important as Kenya’s framework for virtual asset service providers comes into force. The country now wants to determine precisely which platforms operate among its residents, under which licence and with what protections for clients.

To this end, the CMA maintains a public register of entities authorised in Kenya. Checking the register before sending money is becoming all the more important when a platform invokes foreign regulators to reassure its users.

Yet the most familiar warning sign remains much simpler: a promise of high returns, aggressive referrals, followed by a request for additional fees when withdrawals become impossible.

QVSE and CBEX also illustrate the limits of delayed regulatory intervention. A public warning can prevent new deposits. Recovering USDT that has already been transferred or funds sent to a foreign entity is much more difficult.

For Kenya, the next challenge will therefore be less about publishing more lists than detecting these platforms before they reach thousands of users.

The 15 names published this week are probably not the end of the problem. Above all, they provide a snapshot of a market where crypto, forex, fake licences and promises of rapid returns are increasingly easy to combine.