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Kenyan Banks Warn Customers About Buying Crypto: Report
NCBA Bank Kenya sent a cautionary email to customers who have transacted in crypto in the past.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 1:07 p.m. Published Jun 8, 2021, 10:24 a.m.
A number of banks in Kenya have issued alerts to customers who used debit or credit cards to buy crypto such as bitcoin on exchanges.
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- Some of the banks advised customers not to buy, hold or trade cryptocurrencies, BitcoinKE reported June 4.
- One of them, NCBA Bank Kenya, sent a cautionary email to customers who have transacted in crypto in the past.
- "Virtual currencies such as bitcoin are not legal tender in Kenya," NCBA said in an email cited by BitcoinKE. "No protection therefore exists for you as our customer in the event that the platform holding or trading in cryptocurrency fails or goes out of business."
- The warning copies one from Kenya's central bank in 2015 advising banks and other businesses against dealing in cryptocurrency.
- Nonetheless, trading in crypto remains popular. Digital asset marketplace Paxful announced in December it was partnering with remittance network BitLipa to enable buying and selling of bitcoin, litecoin and tether for Kenyan users.
Read more: Africa ‘Is Leading Global Cryptocurrency Adoption’: Paxful CEO
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