The draft rules follow a 2025 High Court ruling in Standard Bank v SARB that found crypto assets fell outside the existing legal definition of capital requiring cross-border approval, creating a regulatory gap. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana flagged the coming changes in his February 2026 Budget Speech. The proposed regulations explicitly bring crypto assets into South Africa's capital flow management system, subjecting cross-border crypto transactions to the same oversight regime as traditional financial instruments. Non-compliance could result in fines of up to R1 million (roughly $55,000) or imprisonment for up to five years.
Under the manual, a transaction becomes a reportable cross-border event when digital assets move from a locally licensed Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) to an offshore provider, or when assets are transferred into a private, non-custodial wallet held outside South Africa's regulatory perimeter. The framework introduces three categories of authorised CASPs with varying permissions, but resident companies would be largely prohibited from moving crypto assets across borders for imports or exports of capital. Inbound payments from private wallets would also be blocked.