Centralized exchange in South Africa

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority declared crypto assets a financial product under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002 by General Notice 1350 of 2022, published in Government Gazette No. 47334 of 19 October 2022 and signed by Commissioner Unathi Kamlana, and it licenses crypto asset service providers as financial services providers under that Act.

The South African Reserve Bank administers exchange control through its Financial Surveillance Department and ran Project Khokha, a June 2018 proof of concept that built a distributed ledger between participating banks for wholesale interbank settlement on Quorum, followed by Project Khokha 2; its Prudential Authority supervises banks and insurers under the Financial Sector Regulation Act 9 of 2017 and holds no crypto asset licensing mandate, which belongs to the Financial Sector Conduct Authority under the FAIS Act 37 of 2002.

Crypto assets were declared a financial product under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002 with effect from 19 October 2022, the date General Notice 1350 of 2022 was published in Government Gazette No. 47334, and not in November 2022.

A crypto asset service provider in South Africa must hold a FAIS financial services provider licence from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority in Category I, II, IIA or III, with approved key individuals and, where required, an approved compliance officer; the fit and proper determination in Board Notice 194 of 2017 sets no rand capital band of R150 000 to R1 000 000 but requires liquid assets of 4/52 of annual expenditure for Category I, 8/52 for Category II and 13/52 for Categories IIA and III, with Categories IIA and III also maintaining assets exceeding liabilities by at least R3 million.

Safekeeping and administration of crypto assets is carried on under the same FAIS financial services provider licence rather than a separate custody licence, and it is separately listed at item 22(d) of Schedule 1 to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001; every FAIS licensee must operate an internal complaints procedure and its clients may refer unresolved complaints to the Ombud for Financial Services Providers established by section 20 of the FAIS Act.

A crypto asset exchange in South Africa requires a FAIS financial services provider licence from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, and the Exchange Control Regulations of 1961 continue to apply to crypto: crypto assets are excluded from foreign currency, regulation 10(1)(c) prohibits the export of capital or the right to capital without National Treasury permission, and repatriation of value into South Africa through crypto assets is not permitted. South Africa was removed from the FATF list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring on 24 October 2025, having been listed on 24 February 2023.

The Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002 regulates the rendering of advice and intermediary services in relation to financial products, including crypto assets since the declaration of 19 October 2022, and does not reach the issuance of those products, so issuing a crypto asset is not by itself a licensable activity under FAIS.

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority licenses and supervises crypto asset service providers as financial services providers under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002; as at 31 March 2026 it had received 533 crypto asset service provider licence applications, approved 310, declined 17 and recorded 124 voluntary withdrawals, and had opened 81 investigations into unlicensed crypto asset service provider activity, of which 51 remained open.

The South African Reserve Bank administers exchange control through its Financial Surveillance Department and is building a cross-border crypto asset framework: the draft Capital Flow Management Regulations, 2026 were published for comment on 17 April 2026 and a draft Crypto Assets Manual for cross-border activities followed on 31 July 2026, both still drafts. Crypto assets remain outside the definition of foreign currency, and regulation 10(1)(c) of the Exchange Control Regulations of 1961 still prohibits exporting capital or the right to capital through crypto assets without National Treasury permission.

The Financial Intelligence Centre supervises anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing compliance under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001; crypto asset service providers have been accountable institutions under item 22 of Schedule 1 since 19 December 2022, must register with the Centre and must file suspicious transaction reports under section 29, and 256 of them were registered under item 22 as at 10 February 2025.

Crypto assets are a financial product for the purposes of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002 because the Financial Sector Conduct Authority, and not the Minister of Finance, declared them so in General Notice 1350 of 2022, Government Gazette 47334 of 19 October 2022, acting under paragraph (h) of the definition of financial product in section 1 of that Act, so a crypto asset service provider must hold an FSP licence.

Crypto asset service providers are accountable institutions under item 22 of Schedule 1 to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001, inserted by the Minister of Finance through the Schedule amendment published in Government Gazette 47596 of 29 November 2022 and effective 19 December 2022, and they must register with the Centre, apply customer due diligence, maintain a Risk Management and Compliance Programme under section 42, report suspicious and unusual transactions under section 29 and file cash threshold reports under section 28.

The Exchange Control Regulations of 1961 made under the Currency and Exchanges Act 9 of 1933 still govern crypto asset flows: the SARB Financial Surveillance Department applies Regulation 10(1)(c), neither the Currency and Exchanges Manual for Authorised Dealers nor the ADLA manual permits cross-border transfers to purchase crypto assets, and repatriation of value into South Africa through crypto assets is not permitted, while the draft Capital Flow Management Regulations, 2026 published as Government Notice 54520 in Government Gazette 7375 of 17 April 2026 are proposed to replace them and to close the gap on cross-border crypto asset transactions.

The crypto asset travel rule came into operation in South Africa on 30 April 2025 under clause 9.1 of FIC Directive 9, issued under section 43A(2) of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 and published as Notice 5543 in Government Gazette 51556 of 15 November 2024.

The Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 governs South African AML/CFT, and crypto asset service providers became accountable institutions at item 22 of Schedule 1 through the Schedule amendment published in Government Gazette 47596 of 29 November 2022 with effect from 19 December 2022, rather than through the General Laws Amendment Act 22 of 2022.

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority Commissioner declared a crypto asset to be a financial product under paragraph (h) of the definition in section 1 of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act 37 of 2002 by General Notice 1350 of 2022, published in Government Gazette 47334 of 19 October 2022, and it is that declaration rather than the Act itself that brings crypto asset service providers into financial services provider licensing.

Customer identification and verification.

Standard CDD and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) for high-risk cases.

Risk assessments for money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.

Sanctions screening and transaction monitoring.

South African crypto asset service providers have had to comply with the travel rule since 30 April 2025 under Financial Intelligence Centre Directive 9, issued on 15 November 2024 under section 43A(2) of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 and published as Notice 5543 in Government Gazette No. 51556, which requires originator and beneficiary information to accompany every crypto asset transfer.

South Africa's crypto asset travel rule threshold is R5 000, not R25 000: clause 4.5 of FIC Directive 9 of 15 November 2024 governs a transfer that is a single transaction of less than R5 000, for which four originator and beneficiary data elements must still be transmitted without verification, so the R5 000 figure is a reduced-information threshold and not an exemption.

FIC Directive 9 applies to every crypto asset transfer, but it sets a R5 000 threshold that reduces the information burden rather than removing transfers from scope: below R5 000 a single transaction outside a business relationship carries four unverified data elements, and a zero threshold for every transfer regardless of amount is so far only proposed, in draft Public Compliance Communication 123 of 2 March 2026 for transfers within an established business relationship, on which comments closed 16 March 2026.

FIC Directive 9 binds ordering, intermediary and recipient crypto asset service providers for both domestic and cross-border transfers, every CASP has had to register with the Financial Intelligence Centre since item 22 of Schedule 1 took effect on 19 December 2022, and the FIC and FSCA have stated that they have no authority to grant exemptions from Directive 9 for any category of CASP; transfers involving unhosted wallets are covered by a separate duty to maintain risk-based policies and procedures rather than by an identical duty to transmit data to a counterparty institution.

Evidence fact za.travel-rule.technical-implementation-requirements not found (may have been renamed).

A crypto asset service provider that fails to comply with FIC Directive 9 is deemed non-compliant and may be subjected to an administrative sanction under section 45C of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001, and the FSCA notified its supervised institutions of the travel rule in Communication 44 of 2024 (AML/CFT) issued on 13 December 2024.

FIC Directive 9, issued under section 43A(2) of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 and published as Notice 5543 in Government Gazette 51556 of 15 November 2024, came into operation on 30 April 2025 and is signed by Mr P Smit, Acting Director of the Financial Intelligence Centre.

Joint Advisory (April 17, 2025): https://www.fic.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2025.4-GN-Advisory-Travel-Rule-17-April-2025-2-1.pdf

An ordering crypto asset service provider must transmit originator and beneficiary information with every crypto asset transfer, but verification is calibrated to the R5 000 threshold: for a single transaction below R5 000 outside a business relationship the ordering CASP need not verify the information for accuracy unless money laundering or terrorist financing is suspected, while at or above R5 000 it must also transmit the originator's identity or passport number and residential address and the beneficiary's distributed ledger address and account or transaction reference number.

A crypto asset service provider must reflect its travel rule measures in the Risk Management and Compliance Programme required by section 42 of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001, including risk-based policies and procedures determining when to execute, suspend execution of or return a crypto asset transfer that lacks any of the required originator or beneficiary information.

The duty falls on the recipient crypto asset service provider rather than on the beneficiary customer: a recipient CASP must take reasonable measures, which may include post-event or real-time monitoring, to identify cross-border crypto asset transfers that lack required information and must hold documented policies on when to execute, suspend or return them, and an intermediary CASP must ensure that all originator and beneficiary information is transmitted onward to the next institution in the chain.

No exemption from FIC Directive 9 exists for transfers to counterparties in jurisdictions without an equivalent travel rule, because the FIC and FSCA have stated that they have no authority to grant exemptions from its requirements for any category of CASP, and Directive 9 instead requires documented risk-based policies determining when to execute, suspend or return a transfer that lacks the required information.

Align with Draft Public Compliance Communication (PCC) 123 for guidance on Directive 9 (authoritative under FIC Act).