South Africa Proposes Strict Crypto Regulatory Framework

South Africa’s financial regulators recommended cryptocurrency “remain without legal tender status” in a Tuesday roadmap outlining what could become the nation’s first comprehensive crypto laws. 

“Crypto assets and the various activities associated with this innovation can no longer remain outside of the regulatory perimeter,” said the IFWG, whose members include the South African Reserve Bank, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and the National Treasury, among others. “Clear policy stances” must be formed. 

The policy paper would implement strict crypto oversight domestically. It would codify the Financial Action Task Force’s “new technologies” anti-money-laundering and “Travel Rule” recommendations, two international baselines for policing crypto businesses. Those businesses would also need to register with the AML watchdog the Financial Intelligence Centre. 

Crypto would face new formal restrictions on when and how it can be used. For example, the…