New stablecoin awaits approval from Kenyan regulators

Members of the Young Entrepreneurs Network Africa in Nairobi, Kenya are developing the YENTS stablecoin, a native token of the entrepreneurs’ Network which is expected to launch in November this year, according to the report. YENTS token will be pegged to the Kenyan shilling or equivalent US dollar amount, on a one to one basis, the report stated. 

The Network’s CEO Kamau Nyabwengi, told that the YENTS token will be used for investment projects such as a planned golf course in Kenya, in about 18 months’ time. But initially, the network’s community will use YENTS to “pay for participation in sports events.” 

Nyabwengi further said they were currently testing the YENTS project in Kenya’s regulatory sandbox, which according to Nyabwengi would help them acquire “regulatory approval within Kenya.” Nyabwengi also aimed to further the use of YENTS stablecoin to other African countries, as well. 

However, Nyabwengi, who was all praise for blockchain tech believed that crypto-regulations in Africa still needed improvement to realize the full potential of the coin and its use-cases in financial investments via blockchain. 

Moreover, a study from blockchain analyzing firm, Chainalysis, found that Kenya ranked fifth worldwide and was even ahead of the U.S. in terms of crypto adoption. Additionally, South Africa and Nigeria were in seventh and eighth places, as seen in the image below:

In other news, Luno’s general manager for Africa, Marius Reitz, said in a report that strict regulations stifle innovation within the crypto sector in Africa. Many believe that its strict crypto regulations could have been introduced to safeguard traders from the region’s infamous crypto-scams. However, the study from Chainalysis found that only a small number of traders fell for such scams compared to Africa’s western and eastern counterparts.