NoOnes Review: Is It a Good Choice in Kenya?

NoOnes is a peer-to-peer marketplace, not an exchange with an order book. Every trade is between two people: one pays in shillings, the other’s coins sit in escrowP2P escrowThe platform locks the seller's coins while you pay. Coins are released only when the seller confirms your M-Pesa payment arrived. Glossary until the payment arrives. For Kenyans that means a long list of BTC and USDT offers paid by M-Pesa, and a very Paxful-like experience — which is no accident. Kenyan search interest in NoOnes is third among exchange brands, behind Binance and Bybit.

Verdict in one minute

We score every exchange on the same 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.

NoOnes scores 7.7 out of 10. On the M-Pesa side it does exactly what Kenyans need, and buyers pay nothing on most trades. It ranks below the big exchanges because it holds no licence we could find, publishes no reserves, disclosed its 2025 exploit only after an outside investigator flagged it, and has been through a leadership upheaval.

Can you use NoOnes in Kenya?

Yes. NoOnes has a Kenya buy page listing M-Pesa among the top payment methods, live sell offers paid by M-Pesa, and a cash-out page that lists Kenya with payouts to bank, M-Pesa or card. It positions itself as a “super app” for the Global South, with a built-in messenger and wallet.

Who you are dealing with is less clear. NoOnes’ Terms of Service say only that the platform is owned and operated by NoOnes and its group companies, without naming a company or country. Crunchbase lists Dubai as its headquarters. We found no licence or registration with any regulator. Under Kenya’s VASP Act, platforms serving Kenyans need a CMA or CBK licence, and we found none here — see our regulation guide.

• Apr 2023Paxful pausesPaxful first shut down and offered users a migration to the newly launched NoOnes.
• Dec 2023Youssef becomes CEOPaxful co-founder Ray Youssef took over as NoOnes CEO.
• Jan 2025Hot-wallet exploitAbout $7.9–8m drained via a Solana bridge exploit; confirmed weeks later after ZachXBT flagged it.
• Nov 2025Paxful closesPaxful stopped trading on 1 November 2025 and later pleaded guilty in the US.
• Feb 2026Youssef outNoOnes said Youssef no longer participates in its management and that his legal matters are personal.

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

On NoOnes there is no “deposit KES” button. You either buy crypto from a vendor with M-Pesa, or deposit crypto you already have.

The offer list is the heart of NoOnes. Each vendor sets a price, a minimum and maximum, and written instructions. Read them: Kenyan vendors often say “Send Money only, no Paybill” or “verified buyers only”. The same safety rules apply as on any P2P marketplace — and gift-card offers are where most P2P fraud happens, so stay with M-Pesa.

Fees in real numbers

NoOnes publishes its fees on a dedicated page, though some older help articles show different numbers. These are the figures from its current fee page and the October 2025 fee article.

For USDT on TRC20TRC20The token standard on the TRON blockchain. USDT-TRC20 is popular in Kenya because transfers are cheap and fast, but you need a little TRX for fees. Glossary, NoOnes’ help page says the network fee is zero and only the wallet fee applies, but another NoOnes page showed a higher figure, so check the send screen. The vendor’s markupMarkupExtra margin added on top of the market rate by a broker or P2P seller. It is a fee even when the app says "zero fees". Glossary is the cost you notice least and pay most. Compare the offer price with the live USDT rate and add Safaricom’s tariff using our M-Pesa charges calculator.

KYC: which documents work

NoOnes uses tiers. Basic verification (email and phone) gets you started. Level 2 adds an ID document and raises the per-trade limit to $100,000; Level 3 adds proof of address and raises it to $1,000,000. NoOnes asks for ID depending on the payment method, above $10,000 in a single trade, or once your total trading or wallet volume reaches $50,000. Manual reviews can take 2–7 days.

Older help pages mention lower limits for unverified users, so expect some vendors to demand full KYCKYCKnow Your Customer: identity checks (ID or passport, selfie, sometimes proof of address) that regulated platforms must run before you trade. Glossary anyway. Use your National ID or passport, and make sure the name matches your M-Pesa line — a mismatch is the fastest way to a refused trade.

Security and track record

In January 2025, attackers exploited NoOnes’ Solana bridge and drained about $7.9–8m from hot wallets across Ethereum, Solana, TRON and BNB Chain. On-chain investigator ZachXBT flagged it on 24 January; Ray Youssef confirmed it weeks later and said user funds were safe. We found no report of customers losing balances, but the delay in disclosure counts against NoOnes in our score.

NoOnes publishes no proof of reservesProof of reservesA report in which an exchange shows it holds customer assets 1:1. Useful, but it does not prove the exchange has no hidden debts. Glossary, so you have no way to check that your balance is backed. That is the main reason we tell readers to treat NoOnes as a place to trade, not to store money.

Licences and regulation

We found no licence or registration for NoOnes with any regulator, and its terms do not name the operating company or its country. That is unusual for a platform of its size and puts it below every exchange in our ranking on this criterion. It also has no Kenyan VASP licence — none is publicly issued yet under the VASP Act 2025, whose transition period for existing operators ended on 4 November 2026. Keep your own records for KRA: see our crypto tax guide.

Step by step: first purchase

1. Create your account

   Sign up with email and phone. Set up 2FA2FATwo-factor authentication: a second code from an app like Google Authenticator. Safer than SMS codes, which SIM-swap fraudsters can intercept. Glossary with an authenticator app before you fund anything.

2. Find an M-Pesa offer

   Choose Buy → USDT (or BTC) → Kenya → M-Pesa. Sort by price, then look at feedback count and the vendor’s last-seen time.

3. Read the offer terms

   Check the limits and instructions. Skip vendors who ask you to contact them on WhatsApp or pay to a different number than the one shown in the trade.

4. Start the trade and pay

   When you start, the vendor’s coins are locked in escrow. Send the exact amount from your own M-Pesa line to the details in the trade chat.

5. Mark as paid and wait

   Mark the trade as paid and wait for the release. If the vendor stops responding, open a dispute inside the trade with your M-Pesa SMS as evidence.

Withdrawing to M-Pesa

1. Create or pick a sell offer

   Choose Sell → USDT → Kenya → M-Pesa and pick a buyer with strong feedback, or post your own offer with clear terms such as “Send Money only, verified buyers”.

2. Wait for money in your balance

   Open the M-Pesa app and confirm the money is in your balance, from a sender whose name matches the buyer. Do not rely on an SMS.

3. Release and keep records

   Release from escrow and save the trade ID with the M-Pesa code. Remember the 1% seller fee when you set your price.

Alternatives

• CEX.IO review — our top pick: card purchases with a strong licensing record.
• Binance review and Bybit review — bigger P2P markets with zero or low fees and published reserves.
• Bitget review and KuCoin review — fee-free P2P with KES.
• OKX review and MEXC review.

See every option in our best crypto exchanges in Kenya ranking.