Remote VASP serving residents in Democratic Republic of the Congo

Virtual-asset activity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is prohibited, not unregulated: article 22 bis of Loi n° 25/048 du 1er juillet 2025, amending Loi n° 22/068 du 27 décembre 2022, bans virtual-asset activities and virtual-asset service providers outright, so operating a cryptocurrency exchange or a crypto custody business in the country is unlawful rather than merely unlicensed.

General Business Registration: Any entity operating in the DRC, regardless of its specific activity, would need to comply with general business registration requirements (e.g., registering with the Ministry of Commerce, obtaining a tax ID, etc.), but these are not specific to financial services or virtual assets.

Local Presence: General business laws would require any company operating in the DRC to have a registered local presence (e.g., a local office, local directors, registration with the relevant commercial registries).

The general AML/CFT framework of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is Loi n° 22/068 du 27 décembre 2022, which replaced Loi n° 04/016 du 19 juillet 2004, as amended by Loi n° 25/048 du 1er juillet 2025; the amending law is crypto-specific, since its article 22 bis prohibits virtual-asset activities and virtual-asset service providers in the country.

The Cellule Nationale des Renseignements Financiers (CENAREF) is the Congolese financial intelligence unit responsible for receiving, analysing and transmitting suspicious transaction reports on money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing, and it is the central and sole structure for that purpose under Loi n° 22/068 du 27 décembre 2022.

Even in the absence of specific crypto regulations, any legitimate financial operation (or one seeking future legitimacy) should adhere to international AML/CFT best practices (e.g., FATF recommendations), including robust KYC procedures, transaction monitoring, and suspicious activity reporting. Failure to do so could lead to future legal issues or blacklisting.

Loi n° 20/017 du 25 novembre 2020 is the Congolese telecommunications and ICT statute, regulated by ARPTIC, and its own scope article excludes electronic money; payment services in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are governed by Loi n° 18/019 du 9 juillet 2018 relative aux systèmes de paiement et de règlement-titres, and fiat-to-crypto conversion is in any event prohibited by article 22 bis of Loi n° 25/048 du 1er juillet 2025.

Implication: A crypto payment processor that converts fiat to crypto or vice-versa, or handles fiat payments in general, might be interpreted by the BCC as falling under the scope of existing payment services regulation, requiring an authorization from the BCC. This would be decided on a case-by-case basis and is subject to interpretation given the lack of specific definitions for virtual assets within this law.

Payment-services and electronic-money licensing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo rests on Loi n° 18/019 du 9 juillet 2018 relative aux systèmes de paiement et de règlement-titres, whose article 108 provides that nobody may establish or operate a payment system or issue payment instruments without an agrément granted by the Banque Centrale du Congo; Loi n° 20/017 du 25 novembre 2020 is the telecommunications and ICT statute and confers no such power.

Crypto-only exchanges and custody businesses have no registration or licensing route in the Democratic Republic of the Congo because article 22 bis of Loi n° 25/048 du 1er juillet 2025 prohibits virtual-asset activities and virtual-asset service providers; the Banque Centrale du Congo is the authority competent to detect and sanction providers operating in breach of that prohibition.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo licenses no cryptocurrency custodian because Article 22 bis of Loi n° 25/048 du 1er juillet 2025, amending Loi n° 22/068 du 27 décembre 2022, prohibits virtual-asset activities and virtual-asset service providers outright, so no custody licence category can arise under BCC-supervised financial-sector law.

Reference: The general position of the BCC can be found in various communiques and statements. For instance, the Communiqué of the Banque Centrale du Congo (BCC) dated December 14, 2021, warned the public against the use of cryptocurrencies, highlighting their lack of legal framework and associated risks. While a direct, stable URL to the specific communiqué can be elusive on the BCC's dynamic site, its content is widely reported and reflects the official position.

Regulator Name: Banque Centrale du Congo (BCC)

Entity Targeted: General Public, financial institutions (indirectly). Violation Type: N/A (This was a public warning, not an enforcement action against a specific violator.) The warning addressed the risks of using unregulated financial instruments like cryptocurrencies and clarified that they are not legal tender in the DRC. Penalty Amount: N/A.

The Banque Centrale du Congo's public crypto warnings are its avis au public dated 9 November 2018 against the illegal collection of public savings through a purported cryptocurrency, and its communiqué of 7 July 2020 stating that crypto-assets are neither regulated nor authorised to operate in the DRC; the BCC's own avis index records no June 2021 warning.

Outcome: To inform the public of the risks and to clarify that cryptocurrencies are not recognized as legal tender, aiming to deter their use within the formal financial system. The outcome is public awareness rather than a specific legal penalty.

Law No. 20/017 of 25 November 2020 on the regulation of payment services: