{"id":632571,"date":"2026-03-10T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T08:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=632571"},"modified":"2026-03-10T10:12:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T08:12:58","slug":"south-africa-wants-to-regulate-crypto-with-laws-from-1933-and-1961","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cryptocurrency\/632571-south-africa-wants-to-regulate-crypto-with-laws-from-1933-and-1961.html","title":{"rendered":"South Africa wants to regulate crypto with laws from 1933 and 1961"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s two largest crypto exchanges have welcomed finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s plan to regulate crypto assets under the country’s capital flow management regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VALR and Luno both cautioned, however, that the new framework must account for the unique nature of digital assets and avoid stifling innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VALR CEO Farzam Ehsani and Luno country manager Christo de Wit responded to the recent Budget Speech announcement, raising questions about how decades-old legislation will govern Internet-native assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godongwana said during his 2026 Budget Speech that draft regulations would be published<\/a> under the Currency and Exchanges Act to govern crypto assets within the cross-border movement of capital framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcement was widely expected after a Pretoria High Court ruling in May 2025 found that cryptocurrency was not considered money for the purposes of South Africa\u2019s Exchange Control Regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That ruling effectively meant crypto transfers offshore did not require South African Reserve Bank (SARB) approval, though it is suspended pending SARB\u2019s appeal to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ehsani said VALR welcomes appropriate regulation that fosters responsible innovation and puts the public interest first, but highlighted a fundamental challenge with the existing legal framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Currency and Exchanges Act dates back to 1933, and the current Exchange Control Regulations were promulgated in 1961 \u2014 both predating the Internet and personal computers by decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“One of the challenges we will face as a nation if we are to preserve these regulations is how to define ‘on-shore’ and ‘off-shore’ for crypto assets,” Ehsani said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crypto assets exist on globally distributed public ledgers as native internet assets, which Ehsani said made the traditional onshore-offshore distinction inherently difficult to apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said South Africa has, to date, provided one of the world’s leading regulatory environments for crypto assets, and expressed confidence that the country would continue with sensible regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mandela promised an end to exchange controls<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Farzam Ehsani, VALR founder and CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUltimately, I look forward to a future that fulfils what President Mandela declared in his 1996 State of the Nation Address,\u201d said Ehsani. Thirty years ago, Mandela promised to lift exchange control regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn order to improve the investment climate, our monetary authorities are reviewing, on an on-going basis, the timing and pace of lifting existing exchange controls,\u201d Mandela said in his 1996 speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor us, it is not a matter of whether, but of when, these controls will be phased out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luno has long advocated that crypto be designated an onshore asset when traded through licensed South African crypto asset service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Wit said crypto assets are currently not clearly designated as either an onshore or offshore asset in South Africa, creating uncertainty for financial advisers and investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Wit said this would mean investors using local platforms are not subject to offshore investment limits, which could encourage greater domestic investment in digital assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onshore classification and stablecoins<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Christo de Wit, Luno country manager for South Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Offshore assets are subject to capital allocation limits, which means the classification has direct consequences for investors allocating capital to digital assets like Bitcoin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The designation could also progress discussions on locally traded crypto exchange-traded products and increase tax revenue for the fiscus, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Wit raised the growing importance of stablecoins for cross-border transactions, particularly for South African companies operating elsewhere on the African continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some jurisdictions, firms struggle to access sufficient foreign currency to repatriate profits, and rand-backed stablecoins can bridge that gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Reserve Bank would need to establish a clear reporting framework to ensure transparency and compliance for stablecoin-based fund repatriation, De Wit said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luno urged the SARB to amend its cross-border reporting framework to allow for the reporting of crypto asset inflows and outflows, including stablecoins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Wit said South African businesses experience extreme delays and high costs when conducting business in emerging markets, particularly when they need to repatriate funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A properly designed stablecoin framework could support capital inflows into South Africa, strengthen local companies with African operations, and grow the tax base.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s two largest crypto exchanges have a word of caution for finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s plan to regulate crypto assets under the country’s capital flow management regime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":630772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44696],"tags":[81105,44668,42992,56040],"class_list":["post-632571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-christo-de-wit","tag-farzam-ehsani","tag-luno","tag-valr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632571"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":632609,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632571\/revisions\/632609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}