The Nairobi Securities Exchange has teamed up with DeFi Technologies, SovFi, and Valour Inc. to develop and introduce the Kenya Digital Exchange, a fully regulated platform for tokenizing real-world assets with the goal of strengthening Kenya’s financial market infrastructure.
This statement expands on the historic Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) that Valour, the NSE, and SovFi inked and previously made public. Through the use of SovFi’s specialized financial solutions and DeFi and Valour’s knowledge of digital assets, the MOU seeks to make it easier to create, issue, and trade digital asset ETPs both inside and outside of the Kenyan market.
The proposed KDX will be a fully regulated platform that facilitates primary issuance, trading, and liquidity provisioning while tokenizing real-world assets like as stocks, debt, funds, and commodities. KDX, which has strong technological foundations and complete regulatory compliance, will use blockchain technology—including integration with Hedera—to enable safe, open, and effective transactions.
DeFi Technologies, Olivier Roussy Newton said, “This partnership represents a transformative step in expanding digital asset infrastructure across Africa, By collaborating with NSE, we will empower investors with new asset classes, driving economic growth, and positioning Kenya as a leading financial hub in Africa.”
KDX’s initial stages will concentrate on investor onboarding, regulatory compliance, and the issue of primary market tokens. Later stages will introduce advanced AI trading methods, market creating, secondary market trading, and interoperability with international digital exchanges.
“This partnership marks a bold and strategic leap toward the future of African capital markets. By collaborating with DeFi Technologies and SovFi to design and launch the KDX, we are laying the foundation for a dynamic digital marketplace that will unlock new investment opportunities, deepen market access, and position Kenya as a trailblazer in the tokenization and trading of real-world assets across the continent, “said the CEO of the NSE, Frank Mwiti.
The KDX will be implemented in three stages, the first of which will be completed by the end of Q4 2025 and the last by the end of Q2 2026. Trading fees, withdrawal and deposit fees, listing fees, margin trading and lending, staking services, Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs) and token launches, custody services, tokenization services, fiat conversion fees, market-making, yield services, and liquidity provision by DeFi Technologies’ wholly-owned subsidiary, Stillman Digital, will all be part of the KDX’s revenue model.
The total value of cryptocurrency transactions in Kenya in 2022 was around $18.6 billion (KES 2.4 trillion), which was more than the transaction volumes of some of the nation’s traditional banks. This significant volume demonstrates the increasing importance of digital assets in Kenya’s financial system. With more than 6 million cryptocurrency users (approximately 10% of the population) and a tech-savvy, mobile-first populace, Kenya has emerged as a blockchain innovation hotspot in short order.