South Africa has become yet another country to adopt legislation regulating the increasingly popular cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin may not have been very impressive lately, but it turns out that 10.7% of South African internet users have invested in the cryptocurrency in some way, which drew the attention of the authorities.
The Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG), among the members of which are the South African Reserve Bank, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and the National Treasury, issued a policy paper, according to which cryptocurrencies will “remain without legal tender status.”
They are also seeking to create a a crypto oversight framework in order to regulate the local cryptocurrency industry. There will be license issuing guidelines and a push for detailed cash flow reports.
This is better than banning cryptocurrencies altogether, I guess, though it’s a long road to actually embracing them.