MEXC Review: Is It a Good Choice in Kenya?

MEXC has a reputation for two things: very low trading fees and listing new tokens before almost anyone else. For Kenyans that has made it a go-to place for Pi Network and Worldcoin trades, and for chasing small tokens seen on TikTok. Its P2P market added the Kenyan shilling around September 2025. What MEXC does not offer is much of a regulatory paper trail — and that shapes how you should use it.

Verdict in one minute

We score on five things: how shillings get in and out, real costs, licences and track record, security and proof of reserves, and how smooth verification is with a Kenyan ID. The method is on our editorial policy page.

MEXC scores 7.1 out of 10. It wins on cost and on coin choice. It loses heavily on regulation and transparency — we could not verify a licence, a reserve report or a security audit — and its KES P2P market is newer and thinner than Binance’s. Use it as a tool for specific trades, not as a home for your savings. See where it sits in our Kenya exchange ranking.

Can you use MEXC in Kenya?

Yes. MEXC’s User Agreement names prohibited countries — including the United States, Canada, Singapore, Indonesia, Syria and Venezuela — and a MEXC learn article lists further restricted places such as the UK, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Kazakhstan. Kenya was not in any version we could read. MEXC says the list is not exhaustive, so check the current version if in doubt.

MEXC actively talks to African users: its blog has a guide to funding with M-Pesa, MTN MoMo and Airtel Money. What it does not have is any Kenyan licence. Under the VASP Act 2025, exchanges serving Kenyans need a CMA licence, and we found no public register of licensed providers. Our regulation guide explains what that means for you.

Depositing KES: M-Pesa, P2P, bank, card

MEXC’s own M-Pesa guide says Kenyans fund accounts through P2P merchants or third-party providers. In practice, many Kenyans buy USDT with M-Pesa on a deeper market such as Binance or Bybit, then send it to MEXC on a cheap networkNetwork (chain)The blockchain a transfer travels on. USDT exists on TRON (TRC20), BNB Smart Chain (BEP20), Ethereum (ERC20) and others — sender and receiver must pick the same one. Glossary to buy PI or a new token. That costs one network fee but gives you the better KES price. The P2P safety rules in our P2P guide apply on MEXC too.

Fees in real numbers

A maker order is a limit orderLimit orderBuy or sell only at a price you set. It may never fill if the market does not reach your price. Glossary that waits in the book; a taker order fills immediately against someone else’s. On MEXC, placing limit orders means you pay nothing at all. MEXC also mentions a larger discount for holding MX, but the required amount and holding period conflict across its own pages, so we leave it out.

Low fees are not the whole cost. On thin new tokens the spreadSpreadThe gap between the buying price and the selling price. If USDT sells at KSh 131 and buys at KSh 128, the spread is KSh 3. Glossary and slippageSlippageThe difference between the price you expected and the price you actually got, because the market moved while your order was filling. Glossary can cost far more than 0.05%. On P2P, add the merchant’s markup and Safaricom’s tariff — our M-Pesa charges calculator does the sum.

KYC: which documents work

MEXC lets you open an account and trade without identity checks. That is its most unusual feature — and a double-edged one.

For Kenyans, the National ID or passport is the document to use for Primary KYCKYCKnow Your Customer: identity checks (ID or passport, selfie, sometimes proof of address) that regulated platforms must run before you trade. Glossary. We recommend verifying even if you do not have to: P2P merchants expect verified buyers, and an unverified account gives you less to prove ownership if you ever need support to recover access.

Security and track record

We could not verify a proof-of-reserves report, a security audit or a protection-fund figure for MEXC when we checked, and we did not find a reported hack of customer funds in our limited research. That is not the same as a clean bill of health: without published reserves, you cannot check that your balance is backed.

Regulators have been more vocal. Japan’s Financial Services Agency sent warning letters to “MEXC Global” in March 2023 and November 2024 for serving Japanese residents without registration, and listed the MEXC trading platform as an unregistered operator in June 2025. We could not confirm warnings from other regulators.

The bigger day-to-day risk for Kenyans is the coin list. MEXC lists many tokens early, and some lose most of their value soon after listing. If a WhatsApp group or TikTok account is pushing a token “only on MEXC”, read our crypto scams guide before you buy. Protect your account with 2FA2FATwo-factor authentication: a second code from an app like Google Authenticator. Safer than SMS codes, which SIM-swap fraudsters can intercept. Glossary and withdrawal-address whitelisting.

Licences and regulation

We could not verify any licence or registration for MEXC from a primary source. It has no Kenyan VASP licence — none is publicly issued yet under the VASP Act 2025, whose transition for existing operators ended on 4 November 2026. That puts MEXC at the bottom of our scores on this criterion, alongside NoOnes. Whatever you trade, keep records for KRA: see our crypto tax guide.

Step by step: first purchase

This example buys PI, the most common reason Kenyans open MEXC.

1. Create and verify your account

   Sign up with your email or phone, turn on 2FA, and complete Primary KYC with your National ID or passport and a selfie.

2. Get USDT into MEXC

   Either buy USDT on MEXC P2P (choose Buy → USDT → KES, filter for M-Pesa) or deposit USDT from another exchange. For a deposit, open Assets → Deposit → USDT, pick a network both sides support, and send a small test first.

3. Open the PI/USDT market

   Go to Spot, search for PI and open PI/USDT. Check the price against our Pi Network page.

4. Place a limit order

   Choose Limit, set your price and amount, and place the order. As a maker you pay 0% if it fills later.

5. Decide where to keep it

   If you are holding for more than a few days, move coins you want to keep to a wallet you control.

Withdrawing to M-Pesa

1. Convert to USDT

   Sell PI, WLD or any other token for USDT on spot. USDT is what Kenyan P2P buyers want.

2. Try MEXC P2P

   Choose Sell → USDT → KES and filter for M-Pesa. If you find a buyer with a long, clean history, sell there and check your M-Pesa balance before releasing.

3. Or move to a deeper market

   If KES buyers are thin, withdraw USDT on a cheap network to an exchange with deeper KES P2P and sell there. Our cash-out guide and reversal scams guide explain how to do it safely.

Alternatives

• CEX.IO review — our top pick: card purchases with a strong licensing record.
• Bitget review — also lists PI, with zero-fee P2P and monthly reserves.
• Binance review and Bybit review — the deepest KES P2P markets.
• OKX review, NoOnes review and KuCoin review.

Compare all eight in our best crypto exchanges in Kenya ranking.