South African exchanges lauds latest SARB ruling on cryptocurrencies

By: Dickson Arinze

July 14, 2022 2:34 PM

The South Africa Central Bank plan to regulate cryptocurrencies as financial assets has been welcomed by major crypto exchange's based in the country.

South Africa’s Reserve Bank (SARB), will start regulating cryptocurrencies as financial assets in the next 18 months, which various local exchanges are expecting the move to drive crypto adoption in the region.

Kuben Chetty, the Deputy governor of South African Reserve Bank (SARB), confirmed on Monday that the new regulations will take effect over the next 12 months while speaking in an online dialogue. The move which will see cryptocurrencies classified as a financial asset and not a currency has been welcomed as a positive development by major South African exchange on accepting crypto in the country.

With no proper cryptocurrency regulations issued by the SARB until recently, the South Africa crypto space has been left to grow organically ever since. However, South Africa has become a leader in cryptocurrency adoption within the African continent, with over 6 million South Africans estimated to know about cryptocurrencies.

Since the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has finally taken a stance toward the ecosystem, exchanges, traders and investors can begin to take stock of the ramifications.

Marius Reitz, general manager for Africa at Luno, a global crypto exchange. while speaking with Cointelegraph, the Luno executive lauds the regulatory move by the SARB which he believes will create a safer environment for crypto users in the country.

Reitz said that complying with new regulatory parameters would not require a step-change in its processes aside from country-specific nuances because the company already operates in countries with stricter regulations such as Singapore and Malaysia. Also, Luno exchange already carries out Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, as well as Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) measures.

Additionally, the South Africa Reserve Bank (SARB) continues to explore the possible use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) via its Khokha project. Various prominent individuals from South Africa traditional banking sector have been actively participating in testing a proof-of-concept (PoC) for the proposed CBDC settlement platform.