Terms & Conditions

Leapa (the “Service”) is operated by SatoshiPay Ltd, a company incorporated in Kenya and trading as Leapa (“Leapa”, “we”, “us” or “our”). These Terms & Conditions, together with our Privacy Policy, form the agreement between you (“you” or “the User”) and us. By opening an account, or by using the Service through our mobile app, our Telegram bot or our website, you agree to be bound by it. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

1. What Leapa does

Leapa moves value between the stablecoins we support and Kenyan Shillings held on M-Pesa. Through the Service you can buy stablecoins by paying with M-Pesa, sell stablecoins and receive Kenyan Shillings on M-Pesa, pay M-Pesa Till and Paybill numbers from your stablecoin balance, and send Kenyan Shillings to M-Pesa numbers.

We support USDT and USDC on the blockchain networks listed in the app. That list can change at any time. Sending an unsupported asset, or a supported asset on an unsupported network, will in most cases lose those funds permanently. We cannot recover them.

Leapa is not a bank, does not take deposits, and pays no interest on balances. We are pursuing a Virtual Asset Service Provider licence in Kenya. We are not licensed as one today, and nothing in the Service should be read as saying otherwise.

2. Who can use Leapa

To open and keep an account you must:

  • be at least 18 years old;
  • hold an M-Pesa account registered in your own name;
  • pass, and continue to pass, our Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks;
  • not appear on any sanctions list maintained by the United Nations, the United States, the United Kingdom or the European Union; and
  • not live in, or be a national of, a country under comprehensive sanctions by any of those bodies.

We may refuse, suspend or close an account where we believe these conditions are not met, or where we cannot verify what you have told us.

3. Your account

Your account is yours alone. Do not let anyone else use it. You are responsible for everything done through it, including transactions made by someone who got hold of your phone, your PIN or your credentials. Tell us at once at support@leapa.co.ke if you think someone else has access.

A wallet PIN protects your account. Keep it secret, and do not reuse a PIN you use anywhere else. We will never ask you for it. Any message that does is not from us.

Every transaction appears in your history in the app with a reference. Quote that reference when you contact us about it.

4. We hold your assets for you

Leapa holds your digital assets on your behalf. We generate and control the private keys behind the deposit addresses we give you, and we move funds from those addresses into accounts we control. You do not hold the keys. This is not a self-custody wallet.

Your balance in the app is our record of what we owe you. It is not a separate on-chain balance under your own control. You therefore depend on us to carry out your withdrawal and payment instructions, and you carry the risks that come with that, including the risk that we become insolvent.

You confirm that any assets you send us are lawfully yours and free of any third-party claim, and that any external address you ask us to withdraw to belongs to you or to someone you are entitled to pay.

5. Rates and fees

We set the rate applied to each transaction. Before you confirm, we show you that rate and the amount you will pay or receive. The amount we quote is what governs the transaction.

Our margin is inside the rate we quote. The rate you see is not the mid-market rate, and the gap between the two is how we earn revenue. Blockchain network fees and any charge levied by Safaricom are separate, and we disclose them where they apply.

A quote holds for a short window. If you do not confirm inside it, the quote expires and we re-price.

6. Making a transaction

You alone are responsible for what you enter: the amount, the M-Pesa number, the Till or Paybill number, the account reference, the network, and the withdrawal address.

Blockchain transfers and M-Pesa payments cannot be reversed. If you send to the wrong address, pay the wrong Till or Paybill, or send the wrong amount, we cannot get the money back for you and we are not liable for the loss.

We credit a deposit once it reaches the number of confirmations we require on that network. How long that takes depends on the network and on conditions we do not control.

We may limit transaction size, daily volume or account balance, and may change those limits. Current limits are shown in the app.

7. When a transaction cannot be completed

If we cannot complete a transaction we will tell you, and tell you why where we are allowed to. Where it fails after we have received your funds, we return them — as Kenyan Shillings to your M-Pesa number, or as the original asset to your account — unless the law or a lawful instruction stops us.

We rely on Safaricom, on blockchain networks, and on other third parties to complete transactions. Delays or failures caused by any of them are outside our control and we are not liable for them, though we will make reasonable efforts to sort them out.

8. What you must not do

You must not use Leapa to:

  • break the law, launder money, finance terrorism, or handle the proceeds of crime;
  • evade sanctions, or transact with a sanctioned person or jurisdiction;
  • impersonate anyone, or open an account using another person’s identity or M-Pesa number;
  • defraud or mislead us or anyone else, including by making false reports to us;
  • get around our security controls, or access an account that is not yours;
  • send malicious code, scrape our systems, or put an unreasonable load on them;
  • reverse engineer or resell any part of the Service; or
  • harass or threaten our staff.

We screen deposit and withdrawal addresses against sanctions and illicit-finance data. Where that screening, or our own monitoring, requires it, we may hold funds, refuse a transaction, or report to the authorities. Accounts that breach this section may be closed without notice.

9. Tax

Working out, reporting and paying any tax on your use of the Service is your responsibility. We do not give tax advice and do not file on your behalf. Where the law requires us to withhold or report, we will.

10. Risk

Digital assets carry real risk. Their value can fall, including to nothing, and stablecoins can and sometimes do lose their peg. Blockchain networks can fail, fork, congest or be attacked. Nothing in the Service is investment, tax or legal advice, and we are not licensed to give financial advice. You use the Service on your own judgement, and you may lose money.

11. Suspension and closure

You can close your account at any time by contacting us, as long as you have no pending transactions and owe us nothing. You may not close an account to frustrate an investigation.

We may suspend or close your account — with notice where we reasonably can, without it where we cannot — if:

  • you breach this Agreement;
  • we suspect fraud, money laundering, sanctions evasion or other unlawful activity;
  • a court, regulator or law enforcement agency requires it; or
  • we cannot verify your identity or the source of your funds.

If we close your account we return any balance we owe you, unless the law or a lawful instruction prevents it.

12. Availability

We provide the Service “as is” and “as available”. We do not promise it will be uninterrupted or free of errors. We may suspend it, in whole or in part, for maintenance, for security, or when a third party we depend on is down.

13. Liability

Nothing here excludes our liability for fraud, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded under Kenyan law.

Beyond that, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, lost profit, lost business, or loss caused by your own error, by your failure to keep your credentials safe, by third parties, or by events outside our reasonable control. Our total liability for any claim is capped at the value of the transaction it arises from.

14. Indemnity

You agree to cover us, and our directors, officers and employees, against any loss, claim or expense (including reasonable legal costs) arising from your breach of this Agreement, from using the Service in a way it does not allow, or from inaccurate information you gave us.

15. Changes

We may change this Agreement. Where a change materially affects your rights, we will tell you through the app or by message before it takes effect. Continuing to use the Service after that means you accept it. The date of the current version is shown at the top of this page.

16. Governing law and disputes

This Agreement is governed by the laws of Kenya. If something goes wrong, contact us first at support@leapa.co.ke so we can try to put it right. Any dispute we cannot resolve is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Kenya.

17. Contact

SatoshiPay Ltd, trading as Leapa — support@leapa.co.ke