Tether and the Nairobi Securities Exchange have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore tokenised securities, blockchain-based market infrastructure and digital-asset education in Kenya.
The agreement, announced on July 28, gives the parties a framework to examine infrastructure that could issue and settle tokenised securities using distributed-ledger technology. It does not launch a trading venue, approve a tokenised instrument or authorize the use of Tether’s USDT stablecoin to settle securities transactions.
That distinction is central for payments and market-infrastructure operators. The announcement puts a stablecoin issuer and its tokenisation platform close to the design of a securities-market workflow, but all of the commercially and legally decisive steps remain ahead.
What the memorandum covers
According to Tether, the parties aim to support the development and implementation of blockchain-based infrastructure for tokenisation and instant securities settlement at the exchange. The work may use Tether’s Hadron platform and examine fractional access for local and diaspora investors.
The companies also plan to design and pilot onboarding flows tailored to Kenya’s anti-money-laundering and know-your-customer requirements. A separate education programme would target brokers listed on the exchange and retail investors through workshops and training.
The memorandum further calls for an assessment of USDT as a possible digital settlement-infrastructure layer. Cointelegraph and FinanceFeeds both reported that this role is conditional on what Kenyan regulation permits. The reviewed announcements do not show that Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority or central bank has approved USDT for securities settlement.
Settlement is the harder part
Token issuance is only one part of a functioning digital securities market. A production design must also establish who controls the cash and asset legs, when a transfer becomes legally final, how custody and asset servicing work, and what happens if a participant or technology provider fails.
Atomic settlement can reduce the time between exchanging cash and securities, but it does not remove the need for liquidity management, identity controls, governance or dispute procedures. If USDT were eventually considered for the cash leg, operators would also need to address redemption access, reserve and issuer exposure, wallet controls and the relationship between onchain transfers and regulated market records.
None of those issues is resolved by the memorandum. Tether’s statement does not disclose a launch date, pilot participants, supported asset classes, transaction volumes, fees, custody providers or a final operating model. It also does not identify which regulated entity would issue tokenised securities or assume responsibility for settlement operations.
Why the agreement still matters
The agreement is significant because it frames tokenisation as a market-infrastructure project rather than only a new investable product. It combines issuance, onboarding and settlement questions within one exploratory programme and explicitly links the work to the exchange’s regulatory environment.
For the Nairobi Securities Exchange, the next meaningful milestone would be a regulator-cleared pilot with defined instruments, participants and settlement responsibilities. For Tether, the test will be whether Hadron can support regulated securities workflows while keeping USDT’s possible role separate from the legal and operational obligations of the exchange.
Until those details emerge, the memorandum should be read as a structured exploration. It creates a path to test tokenised-market infrastructure; it is not evidence that Kenya has adopted USDT as a settlement asset or that a tokenised securities market is live.