The International Monetary Fund has asked Kenya to require cryptocurrency exchanges and other virtual asset service providers to collect and transmit detailed identifying information about users involved in crypto transactions.

The proposal calls for the adoption of the Financial Action Task Force Travel Rule, which obliges platforms to obtain, retain and securely forward data on both the sender and the recipient of each transfer.

Required data would include full names, national ID numbers, physical addresses, account references and the wallet addresses used, with the information passed to the receiving platform and Kenya’s Financial Reporting Centre.

Kenya already mandates customer identification for crypto services under its Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, but the IMF wants an additional step of sharing that data between institutions.

The recommendation is linked to Kenya’s effort to address FATF‑identified deficiencies and to secure removal from the FATF grey list by April 2027.

Crypto activity in Kenya is substantial, with transactions totalling about $3.3 billion in the 12 months to June 2024 and monthly stable‑coin volumes stabilising around $500 million.

The Travel Rule would turn exchanges into identity checkpoints, linking real‑world identities to wallet addresses and transaction histories, thereby easing law‑enforcement tracing of funds.