South Africa’s financial markets regulator has declared crypto assets as a financial product, setting the legal grounds to bring cryptocurrencies under regulatory purview.

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Fast facts

  • Crypto is not issued by a central bank but can be traded, transferred and used for payments, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) said in a notice on Wednesday.
  • The FSCA acknowledged crypto assets as a digital representation of value on distributed ledgers. 
  • Governments and regulators around the world have been strengthening oversight of the nascent asset class, a trend that has accelerated since the multibillion-dollar collapse of the Terra-LUNA stablecoin project in May.

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