South Africa regulated by declaration rather than legislation: in October 2022 the FSCA declared crypto assets a financial product under the existing FAIS Act, making advice and intermediary services in crypto, which in practice covers exchanges and brokers, licensable activity. Applications opened in 2023 and the FSCA has since licensed several hundred crypto asset service providers while publishing enforcement lists of firms operating without authorization. In parallel, crypto businesses became accountable institutions under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act in 2022, and the FIC's travel-rule directive took effect in 2025, completing the FATF-driven AML build that helped South Africa's grey-list exit case.
Exchange control is where reform is now moving. In April 2026 the Treasury published draft Capital Flow Management Regulations to replace the 1961 Exchange Control Regulations, bringing crypto assets expressly within exchange control, and in August 2026 the Treasury and the Reserve Bank issued a draft Crypto Assets Manual for cross-border activity that would require separate Reserve Bank authorisation for crypto asset service providers, with comments due September 30, 2026. The Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group's roadmap continues to steer stablecoin and tokenization policy toward eventual bespoke legislation.
The instruments
Declaration of crypto assets as a financial product
Brings advice and intermediary services in crypto assets under FAIS licensing: fit-and-proper standards, conduct rules, and FSCA supervision, with a licensing round that has authorized hundreds of CASPs and produced public warnings against unlicensed operators.
FIC Act coverage and the travel rule
Crypto asset service providers are accountable institutions: registration with the FIC, customer due diligence, reporting, and, from 2025, travel-rule transmission of originator and beneficiary information.