Cameroon is covered by four crypto-specific CEMAC instruments, all directly applicable in member states without national transposition. The CEMAC crypto stack directly applicable in Cameroon: (1) Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 — prohibits COBAC-supervised institutions (credit institutions, EMF, payment institutions) from holding, exchanging, converting or booking cryptoassets for own or third-party account; (2) Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 portant organisation et fonctionnement du marché financier de l'Afrique Centrale (en vigueur 1er août 2022) — art. 144 subjects 'prestataires de services sur actifs numériques' (PSAN) to COSUMAF agrément, art. 160 lists the services (conservation pour compte de tiers, achat/vente contre monnaie ayant cours légal, exploitation d'une plateforme de négociation, RTO, gestion de portefeuille, conseil, placement); (3) Règlement Général de la COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 (687 articles, abrogeant le RG du 23 juillet 2008) — first community PSAN framework, token placement monopoly, AML vigilance (arts. 92-93); (4) Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024 (LBC/FT) — art. 2 defines actif virtuel and PSAV, art. 42 prior agrément/autorisation from the competent State authority, art. 39 10-year retention, STRs to ANIF. Operational gap: no PSAN agrément has been granted and COSUMAF's implementing instructions were still unpublished as of mid-2026. What is true is that the regime is not yet operational: no PSAN has been licensed and implementing instructions are outstanding.

CEMAC financial regulation reaches crypto transactions expressly. COBAC decision D-2022/071 (6 May 2022) requires supervised banks, microfinance institutions and payment institutions to implement internal controls to detect crypto-related transactions and report them to COBAC and BEAC. Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF (21 July 2022) brings PSAN under COSUMAF supervision, and Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM (20 December 2024) makes virtual asset service providers assujettis for AML/CFT purposes.

Both named institutions are wrong. Cameroon is in CEMAC, not UEMOA: its central bank is the Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale (BEAC, HQ Yaoundé), not the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), and its currency is the franc CFA BEAC (XAF), not XOF. Banking supervision is by the Commission Bancaire de l'Afrique Centrale (COBAC). There is no 'Cameroonian Financial Market Authority' / 'Autorité de Régulation du Marché Financier (ARMF)' — the securities regulator is the regional Commission de Surveillance du Marché Financier de l'Afrique Centrale (COSUMAF), Cameroon's national Commission des Marchés Financiers having been wound up in the 2019 DSX/BVMAC merger. The FIU is ANIF (Décret n° 2005/187 du 31 mai 2005). The FATF-style regional body is GABAC.

Dedicated instruments exist and are directly applicable in Cameroon. The CEMAC crypto stack directly applicable in Cameroon: (1) Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 — prohibits COBAC-supervised institutions (credit institutions, EMF, payment institutions) from holding, exchanging, converting or booking cryptoassets for own or third-party account; (2) Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 portant organisation et fonctionnement du marché financier de l'Afrique Centrale (en vigueur 1er août 2022) — art. 144 subjects 'prestataires de services sur actifs numériques' (PSAN) to COSUMAF agrément, art. 160 lists the services (conservation pour compte de tiers, achat/vente contre monnaie ayant cours légal, exploitation d'une plateforme de négociation, RTO, gestion de portefeuille, conseil, placement); (3) Règlement Général de la COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 (687 articles, abrogeant le RG du 23 juillet 2008) — first community PSAN framework, token placement monopoly, AML vigilance (arts. 92-93); (4) Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024 (LBC/FT) — art. 2 defines actif virtuel and PSAV, art. 42 prior agrément/autorisation from the competent State authority, art. 39 10-year retention, STRs to ANIF. Operational gap: no PSAN agrément has been granted and COSUMAF's implementing instructions were still unpublished as of mid-2026.

A licence is legally required. Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022, art. 144, requires prestataires de services sur actifs numériques to be agréés by COSUMAF; art. 160 covers exactly the two activities the claim names — conservation d'actifs numériques pour compte de tiers (wallet/custody) and achat-vente d'actifs numériques contre monnaie ayant cours légal / exploitation d'une plateforme de négociation (exchange). The Règlement Général de la COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 builds out the PSAN regime. Independently, Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024, art. 42, provides that no one may carry on the professional activity of a virtual asset service provider without prior agrément or authorisation from the competent authority of the State. Separately, COBAC decision D-2022/071 bars all COBAC-supervised institutions from any crypto activity. The correct nuance is that no PSAN agrément has yet been issued and COSUMAF's implementing instructions remain unpublished as of mid-2026 — so the licence is required but not yet obtainable in practice.

The conclusion is right but the mechanism is understated. Under Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024 virtual asset service providers are assujettis in their own right — art. 2 defines 'actif virtuel' (digital representation of value that can be digitally traded, transferred or used for payment or investment) and 'prestataire de services sur actifs virtuels' (exchange, transfer, safekeeping, participation in offerings, on a commercial basis for a customer). They are not merely caught by rules 'applicable to financial institutions' by analogy. Obligations include 10-year record retention (art. 39) and suspicious transaction reporting to ANIF.

There is no 'Cameroonian Anti-Money Laundering Act'. Cameroon's AML/CFT obligations flow from a directly-applicable CEMAC regulation: Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 20 décembre 2024 portant prévention et répression du blanchiment des capitaux, du financement du terrorisme et de la prolifération en Afrique Centrale, which abrogates contrary provisions of Règlement n° 01/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 11 avril 2016 (itself the successor to Règlement n° 01/03-CEMAC-UMAC of 2003 and Règlement n° 02/10 of 2 October 2010). Two companion regulations were adopted the same day: n° 03/24 (mutual-evaluation procedures manual, 3rd cycle) and n° 04/24 (targeted financial sanctions). The national layer is institutional, not substantive: Décret n° 2005/187 du 31 mai 2005 creating ANIF.

'ARIFE' does not exist — it is a garbling of ANIF. Cameroon's FIU is the Agence Nationale d'Investigation Financière (ANIF), created by Décret n° 2005/187 du 31 mai 2005, an administrative-type financial intelligence unit attached to the Ministère des Finances (MINFI). The supervision relationship is the reverse of what the record states: ANIF is not supervised by any 'ARIFE'. And ANIF does not conduct enforcement — it receives and analyses suspicious transaction reports and refers cases to the Procureur de la République; administrative sanctions against supervised financial institutions are imposed by COBAC, and on market intermediaries by COSUMAF.

Part (a) could not be confirmed or refuted — no public record of a Cameroonian or COBAC/COSUMAF enforcement action specifically against a crypto operator was located, so treat it as unverified rather than established. Part (b) is false: targeted regulatory provisions do exist — COBAC decision D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 is an outright prohibition binding on all COBAC-supervised institutions with an obligation to detect and report crypto-related transactions to COBAC and BEAC, and Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF art. 144 reserves PSAN activity to COSUMAF-licensed firms.

The rates are wrong. Cameroon's personal income tax on salaries is banded 11% (0–2,000,000 XAF), 16.5% (2,000,001–3,000,000), 27.5% (3,000,001–5,000,000) and 38.5% (above 5,000,000), inclusive of the 10% additional communal levy; net income from other activities is taxed at 33%. There is no 20%–30% bracket. Separately, no crypto-specific charging provision in the Code Général des Impôts camerounais could be identified, so the premise that crypto investment income is expressly subject to PIT is itself unestablished.

Gains realized from the sale or exchange of cryptocurrencies are considered taxable events and must be reported accurately to avoid penalties under Cameroonian tax law.

The 'uncertainty for market participants' half is well supported, but the diagnosis is wrong. The gap is not the absence of legislation — Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF (21 July 2022), the COSUMAF Règlement Général (23 May 2023) and Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM (20 December 2024) all legislate on digital/virtual assets. The gap is implementation: COSUMAF's PSAN implementing instructions remained unpublished as of mid-2026 and no PSAN agrément has been delivered, while COBAC decision D-2022/071 simultaneously bars every supervised bank, EMF and payment institution from touching crypto — leaving a licensable-on-paper, unbankable-in-practice regime.

Risks include potential regulatory crackdowns, financial instability due to unregulated activities, and exposure to money laundering and terrorist financing threats without adequate AML/CFT measures.

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