SA regulator to release crypto regulatory framework in 2022

What

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), South Africa’s financial sector regulator, is planning to unveil a new regulatory framework for cryptocurrency sometime around the beginning of 2022

Why

The regulatory framework will set in place structures that deal with the trading of cryptocurrencies and how these products relate to traditional financial products. The news follows a spate of recent crypto scams in the country

What next

The FSCA, working with other regulatory bodies, including the prudential authority and the financial surveillance board, is set to release the first version of the regulation in the new year.

The story

In an interview with Bloomberg, the Commissioner of the FSCA, Unathi Kamlana, revealed the organisation’s plans to set in place a regulatory framework dealing with cryptocurrency. 

The new regulation will propose a framework for the trading of cryptocurrencies and traditional financial products related to crypto. 

As Kamlana explains, the regulation will serve to protect and inform the vulnerable in South Africa against high-risk investments. This follows two high-profile cryptocurrency scams in which company founders made off with billions of rands in cryptocurrency. 

The commissioner mentioned that they don’t see cryptocurrencies posing a systemic risk to the stability of the financial system at this point, and explained that they are closely monitoring the South African Reserve Bank’s plans to develop its own stable coin. He added that the FSCA sees cryptocurrency as an asset rather than a currency. 

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