Kenya’s CMA flags 15 Unlicensed Investment Firms: CBEX, QVSE and Crypto Scams Under Fire

What to know

• Kenya’s CMA has named 15 entities it says are operating unlawfully and soliciting funds without a licence, now under DCI investigation
• Several are explicitly crypto-related, and two — QVSE and CBEX — already have documented histories of harming investors before this warning.
• The warning arrives as Kenya’s new Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 is being phased in, with a compliance deadline of 4 November 2026.

Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority has issued a public caution against 15 unlicensed entities that are “operating unlawfully and fraudulently soliciting funds from the public.” These entities are under active criminal investigation by the CMA, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and other law enforcement agencies in Kenya. 

The CMA urged the general public to cease dealing with these entities and affiliated individuals. The regulator also encouraged affected individuals to report to their nearest DCI offices. 

The Flagged Crypto-Related Entities

The CMA list includes firms claiming to be traditional forex, stock, and wealth management platforms. It also includes crypto-facing platforms. The crypto-related firms include:

• QVSE and Global Investment Group combine cryptocurrency payments with promises of US stock trading access
• CBEX claimed to provide AI-driven crypto and forex arbitrage trading
• Kore Exchange disguised itself as a digital asset trading platform
• Bitblock Capital Limited promised crypto fund management and yields
• Ultima Cryptocurrency offered token investment and passive income
• Wealth Sharing Group, operating as Opticon, offered crypto pool sharing

The non-crypto entities flagged in the notice include:

• Abacus Wealth Management 
• Brown Advisory Group
• B Invest
• Maliwave Investments
• Monetrix Capital Investments
• Twenty-four Hours Pro Expert Trade
• Just Markets
• Lukman-trust fund. 

The QVSE Parliamentary Scrutiny

This is not the first time Quant Vest Stock Exchange (QVSE) has come under regulators’ scrutiny. As previously reported by Crypto Africa News, Kenyan MP Stephen Mule petitioned Speaker Moses Wetang’ula and the Kenyan Parliament to launch an official inquiry into QVSE’s operations in August 2026.

The National Assembly Speaker directed the Finance and National Planning Committee to investigate and gave it two weeks to report back.

Mule told Parliament that QVSE targeted economically vulnerable Kenyans and small-scale traders with minimum buy-ins of Ksh 65,000. The platform promised them fixed daily returns via foreign stock-copy trading.

Subsequent reporting found that despite its marketing, QVSE’s US registration with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) did not authorise it to run a securities exchange.

Earlier this month, before the CMA’s warning, multiple Kenyan users reported that the platform had frozen withdrawals. QVSE then asked users to pay a secondary “account activation fee” to unlock their funds. 

QVSE’s pattern isn’t unique to Kenya. Similar complaints about its marketing arm, Global Investment Group, appear in online scam-reporting communities, including a Reddit thread describing its tactics in India. 

CBEX’s Track Record: From Nigeria to Kenya

Anyone familiar with crypto scams on the continent will not be surprised to see CBEX on the list. Crypto Bridge Exchange, CBEX, operated in Nigeria and then collapsed in April 2025, after the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) warned the public to stay away from the platform. 

CBEX lured users with promises of a 30% monthly ROI using “AI-powered trading bots.” Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm, investigated CBEX.

They found that CBEX operators actively laundered users’ deposits by repeatedly swapping between Tron and Ethereum via cross-chain bridges. This technique, known as chain-hopping, typically makes it difficult for investigators to follow the money trail. 

Once liquidity peaked, the platform halted withdrawals and deleted its social channels, and its website remains offline. Some reports estimated that up to $800 million was lost to the scam. Its appearance on Kenya’s list suggests that the scheme, or another scheme using the same name, is now targeting Kenyan investors. 

Why The Scheme Works

It’s easy to assume that people fall for these schemes because of carelessness or greed. However, research on fraud psychology shows that education and intelligence do not completely insulate victims from their offers. 

These schemes spread fastest through trusted networks. People often learn about them through churches, workplaces, and alums groups. Usually, people extend the trust they have for the individuals in that network to the product or the scheme being recommended. 

The language used to market these schemes creates a sense of urgency, authority, or both. Victims are often told there are “limited slots,” or that the offer lasts only a limited time, or something similar. Like in the case of QVSE, operators could assure users that they have permits or licences to cover the services they claim to provide. 

After money is invested, most people will rationalise the red flags instead of admitting they have made a mistake. 

To protect yourself, stay away from any investment scheme, crypto-related or otherwise, promising fixed returns or high monthly yields. Real investments do not come with such guarantees, and any “exchange” offering them is likely a front for a Ponzi scheme.

What to Do If You’re Affected

If you or someone you know has interacted with or deposited funds into any of these entities, you need to follow the following steps:

• Stop All Further Payments: “Unfreezing fees, collection tax,” and other similar fees are just secondary attempts to extort money from victims. Like CBEX in Nigeria, victims were unable to recover their funds or the collection fees. 
• Document everything: Save transaction receipts, wallet addresses, group chat screenshots, and dashboard balances.
• Report to Law Enforcement: The CMA has encouraged people to aid the investigation by reporting to the nearest DCI office. 

For a broader walkthrough of the scam patterns recurring among African crypto platforms, see our guide to common crypto scams targeting African users.