A licensing regime for digital-asset services applies in Equatorial Guinea through directly applicable community law: article 144 of Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 requires COSUMAF agrément as prestataire de services sur actifs numériques, and the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 supplies the framework, while no implementing instruction has been issued, no minimum capital is set and no agrément has been granted.

Licences for digital-asset services exist in CEMAC law and cover Equatorial Guinea: article 160 of Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF lists custody for third parties, purchase and sale against legal tender, platform operation, reception and transmission of orders, portfolio management, advice and placement, all subject to COSUMAF agrément, and no such agrément has yet been issued to any operator.

BEAC issued no Circular No. 001/GR/2022 of 29 June 2022 on the prohibition of crypto-assets; BEAC's register of Instructions, Circulaires et Règlements lists no 2022 crypto instrument, and the CEMAC measure of that period is Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022, binding supervised institutions only.

No CEMAC prohibition reaches the issuance, trading or holding of crypto-assets by any person: Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 binds only institutions COBAC supervises, and Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM of 20 December 2024 instead treats virtual-asset service providers in Equatorial Guinea as regulated obliged entities subject to authorisation and AML/CFT duties.

Custody of digital assets for third parties is a licensable activity rather than a prohibited one in Equatorial Guinea: it appears in the list of services requiring COSUMAF agrément under Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF, and the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 defines the PSAN as a professional providing purchase-sale, custody and platform services.

Payment institutions in Equatorial Guinea are barred from crypto-asset dealings by Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022 as COBAC-supervised entities, not by any prohibition on crypto payment processing as such; unsupervised persons face no equivalent bar and virtual-asset service provision is instead subject to authorisation under Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM.

Other VASPs: Any entity dealing with virtual assets in a professional capacity.

BEAC has published no rationale for a crypto-asset prohibition because it has issued no such measure; the reasoning about financial stability, money laundering, terrorist financing and capital flight belongs to Décision COBAC D-2022/071 du 6 mai 2022, which COBAC addressed to the institutions it supervises in Equatorial Guinea and the other CEMAC states.

Virtual-asset service providers operating in Equatorial Guinea carry AML/CFT obligations directly under Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM of 20 December 2024: article 6 lists them among the obliged entities, article 42 requires prior authorisation and the transmission of originator and beneficiary information above 500 000 FCFA for occasional transactions, and article 39 sets a ten-year record-retention period, while no CEMAC text fixes a minimum capital for PSAN.

No PSAN application process operates in Equatorial Guinea because COSUMAF has issued no implementing instruction and granted no agrément, while the licensing obligation itself exists in force under Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF and the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023.

BEAC Circular No. 001/GR/2022 of June 29, 2022:

No instrument entitled 'Circulaire n° 001/GR/2022 portant interdiction des crypto-actifs' exists; BEAC's register of instructions, circulaires and règlements contains no such text and no crypto-asset prohibition, and the French-titled citation is an invention.

No CEMAC instrument prohibits crypto-asset activity for individuals; the regional measure of 6 May 2022 is Décision COBAC D-2022/071, addressed to COBAC-supervised institutions, and community law since Règlement n° 02/24/CEMAC/UMAC/CM of 20 December 2024 subjects virtual-asset service providers in Equatorial Guinea to authorisation and AML/CFT supervision instead of prohibition.

Official Source: While direct public links to the full text of every BEAC circular can sometimes be challenging to find on their official website (they often disseminate through official channels or press releases), the existence and content of this circular are widely reported by legal firms and financial news outlets operating in the region.

BEAC Official Website (French): https://www.beac.int/

BEAC Regulatory Texts (Textes Réglementaires): https://www.beac.int/textes-reglementaires/ (You would typically find such circulars under "Réglementation de change" or "Réglementation bancaire").

Règlement n° 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM du 21 décembre 2018 is the CEMAC foreign-exchange regulation, portant réglementation des changes dans la CEMAC, in force 1 March 2019; payment services and electronic money are governed by Règlement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC of the same date, in force 1 January 2019.

Règlement n° 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM governs foreign exchange and cannot classify a stablecoin as electronic money; electronic money in the CEMAC is governed by Règlement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC du 21 décembre 2018 on payment services, and a digitally issued token in Equatorial Guinea otherwise falls to the jeton numérique regime of COSUMAF rather than to the e-money regime.

The quoted wording is the standard CEMAC definition of monnaie électronique but it does not come from Règlement n° 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM, which regulates foreign exchange; the electronic-money definition belongs to the CEMAC payment-services and e-money texts, Règlement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC du 21 décembre 2018 and the earlier Règlement n° 01/11/CEMAC/UMAC/CM of 2011.

Payment Tokens: While not explicitly defined, if a stablecoin acts solely as a means of payment, its issuance and use would fall under the provisions for payment services and electronic money.

Digital tokens are brought within the CEMAC public-offer regime rather than left outside it: article 76 of Règlement n° 01/22/CEMAC/UMAC/CM/COSUMAF du 21 juillet 2022 defines the jeton numérique and applies the appel public à l'épargne regime to it, and the Règlement Général COSUMAF du 23 mai 2023 sets the offer and visa procedure, so a token marketed to the public in Equatorial Guinea engages COSUMAF whether or not it confers investment rights.

Article 27 of Règlement n° 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM concerns non-resident CFA franc accounts and the duty of a domiciling intermediary to report doubts under CEMAC AML/CFT rules, and imposes no backing obligation on electronic money; the segregation of funds received against electronic money is required by COBAC Règlement R-2019/02, article 10, implementing Règlement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC.

The French passage attributed to article 27 appears nowhere in Règlement n° 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM: the phrase 'Les Établissements de Monnaie Électronique sont tenus de cantonner' is absent from the whole text, and article 27 instead reads that a domiciling approved intermediary with doubts about an operation informs the competent authority under the CEMAC AML/CFT rules.

Funds received against electronic money in the CEMAC must be segregated for the protection of holders, but the duty rests on COBAC Règlement R-2019/02, article 10, implementing Règlement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC du 21 décembre 2018, and not on the foreign-exchange regulation 02/18 to which this passage attaches it.

Electronic-money issuance in the CEMAC zone, including Equatorial Guinea, is governed by Règlement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC du 21 décembre 2018 relatif aux services de paiement dans la CEMAC; the agrément of a payment institution or electronic-money issuer is granted by the national monetary authority on the prior assent of COBAC, not by BEAC, and the applicant must show paid-up share capital of at least 500 million FCFA.

No CEMAC instrument vests electronic-money agrément in BEAC; under Règlement n° 04/18/CEMAC/UMAC/COBAC du 21 décembre 2018 the agrément of payment institutions and electronic-money issuers is delivered by the national monetary authority after COBAC's prior assent, and the BEAC PDF from which the quoted article 5 is drawn returns HTTP 404.

The licensing process is rigorous, requiring significant minimum capital, robust governance structures, risk management, and compliance with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) regulations.

This ensures liquidity and trust in the electronic money.

Implicitly Prohibited/Not Covered: The current BEAC regulatory framework for electronic money requires full backing by liquid assets. Algorithmic stablecoins, by their nature, do not rely on direct 1:1 backing by fiat currency or equivalent liquid assets but rather on market mechanisms, smart contracts, or other volatile assets.

Therefore, algorithmic stablecoins would not fit the definition or requirements of "electronic money" under Regulation N°02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM and would likely not be permitted or regulated under this existing framework. There are no specific rules for them because the foundational requirement of full asset backing would preclude their operation.

BEAC is exploring a central bank digital currency and organised a seminar with the IMF in Yaoundé from 23 to 27 February 2026 on central bank digital currencies and the regulation of crypto-assets in CEMAC, attended by COBAC, GABAC, COSUMAF and Financial Stability Board specialists; no BEAC or CEMAC instrument names the project e-CFA.

No CEMAC central bank digital currency has been issued; BEAC remains at the exploratory stage and worked with the IMF in February 2026 on the perspectives of a future monnaie numérique de banque centrale, and no CEMAC instrument uses the name e-CFA.

Interaction: If a BEAC CBDC is launched, it would likely become the primary digital form of the regional currency. This could significantly impact the viability and regulatory approach to private stablecoins pegged to the XAF. A BEAC CBDC would represent direct central bank liability, offering ultimate stability and potentially rendering private stablecoins in XAF less attractive or subject to more stringent oversight to ensure they don't undermine the central bank's monetary authority.

This is the cornerstone document. An official source is often difficult to link directly from BEAC's main site, but it's widely referenced by legal firms and financial institutions operating in the region.

Likely found via legal databases or regional financial portals: A common source for these CEMAC regulations is often through national gazettes or financial sector portals. For instance, a search on a legal database like Juricamer or directly on BEAC's older publications might yield it.

An official reference by BEAC often refers to this: https://www.beac.int/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/REGLEMENT-N-01-11-CEMAC-UMAC-CM-2011.pdf

More likely to find discussions/summaries by financial bodies referencing it: For example, the IMF or legal reviews: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fmu/eng/2016/FMU_2016_Chap6.pdf Note: Direct PDF links to BEAC regulations can change, so searching "Règlement N°02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM" on a search engine might be the most reliable way to find the latest accessible PDF.

While there isn't a single regulation, BEAC has made statements regarding its CBDC exploration.

News/Official Statements: Search for "BEAC e-CFA" or "BEAC CBDC" for relevant news and statements.

Example (news source referencing BEAC's intent): https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/cemac-central-bank-wants-create-digital-currency-2022-12-16/

Law 2/1995 governs general gambling activities (online gaming, betting, casinos).

Law 10/2017 provides regulatory reforms for the gambling sector.

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Mascott Capital Partners: This entity is responsible for licensing online gaming operators under the new framework introduced by the government. It does not provide licensing for crypto/Web3 activities, aligning with the absence of such regulation.