South Africa’s Reserve Bank is set to begin regulating cryptocurrencies as financial assets in the next 18 months, with exchanges expecting the move to drive adoption in the country. The move to classify cryptocurrencies as financial assets and not currency has been talked about for some time by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB). Deputy governor Kuben Chetty confirmed that the new regulations would take effect over the next year, speaking in an online dialogue on Monday. The cryptocurrency space has been left to develop organically in South Africa, with no clear-cut regulations issued by the SARB until recently. The …

The South African Reserve Bank is set to introduce regulations next year that will see cryptocurrencies classed and treated as financial assets to balance investor protection and innovation. Cryptocurrency use in South Africa is in a healthy space, with around 13% of the population estimated to own some form of cryptocurrency, according to research from global exchange Luno. With more than six million people in the country having cryptocurrency exposure, regulation of the space has long been a talking point. Companies or individuals looking to provide advice or intermediary services involving cryptocurrencies are currently required to be recognized as financial …

Riccardo Spagni, the former maintainer of the privacy coin Monero (XMR), also known as Fluffypony, faces extradition to South Africa months after his arrest by U.S. authorities. In a Thursday court filing for the Middle District of Tennessee, Magistrate Judge Alistair Newbern ordered Spagni to surrender to U.S. Marshals on July 5 for extradition to South Africa. He will reportedly face 378 charges related to allegations of fraud and forgery between 2009 and 2011 at a company called Cape Cookies. U.S. authorities arrested Spagni in Nashville in July 2021 at the request of the South African government, holding him in …

Bitcoin (BTC) is for all. For you, for Michael Saylor in Miami, and for 38-year-old Jorge, a Mozambican family man who's using the largest cryptocurrency to make ends meet. Jorge, who goes by his first name for anonymity, lives in the tiny village of Bomba, Mozambique, on its southeast coast. Since the COVID-19 pandemic stripped away tourism from the sleepy surf town, one of Jorge’s primary wage earners—tourism—disappeared. Luckily, Bitcoin adoption is slowly swelling in Africa–from the Central African Republic across to Senegal and further north. Mozambique is also showing signs it's warming to the world's most popular crypto. Mozambique …

Top golfers from Africa and Europe will be eyeing lucrative Bitcoin (BTC) payouts at the end of the 2022 season after a new sponsorship of South Africa’s Sunshine Tour. The year-long season sees golfers compete for the top spot on Sunshine Tour’s overall leaderboard, the Order of Merit. Crypto platform Luno, which has a big footprint in South Africa and the wider African continent, has assumed the title sponsorship of the overall rankings. Money talks in sport but the language is certainly evolving, with Luno casting aside rand-based awards for the top golfers on the Order of Merit in favor …

On Wednesday, South Africa celebrated Freedom Day, which honors the country's first post-apartheid democratic election in 1994. Cointelegraph reached out to different notable individuals in the South African crypto community to see what the holiday meant to them. BitcoinZAR, a Bitcoin advocate in South Africa, noted that "Freedom Day means you are free to use your own money to live your best life," adding: “We are free on Freedom Day to choose Bitcoin instead of losing value with government money. Stop aiding and abetting state capture, corruption and looting in South Africa. Vote with your money, and buy Bitcoin.” Several …

Okay Bears, a Solana (SOL)-powered nonfungible token (NFT), managed to top OpenSea’s 24-hour sales tracker for the first time earlier on Thursday, beating out all other Ethereum (ETH) projects on offer. It’s the first time a Solana NFT project has reached the top spot in thpopular NFT marketplace OpenSea’s 24-hour sales tracker. .@okaybears No.1 on the OpenSea 24h rankings A @solana project has topped OpenSea’s market-wide 24h sales tracker for the first time! Check out the latest featured Solana collections on our dedicated SOL page: https://t.co/gteXeNRocn pic.twitter.com/1duEDQyxyn — OpenSea (@opensea) April 27, 2022 The Solana-based NFT, which features a collection …

Digital twin nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, aren't just reserved for consumer products anymore. Netherlands-based decentralized carbon credit exchange Coorest and conservation consulting firm PLCnetwork of the Southern Hemisphere teamed up to tokenize individual real-world endangered animals at game reserves and privately owned conservation areas in Africa. These wildlife NFTs enable holders to sponsor an elephant, lion, cheetah or rhino. Profits from the sales will go toward food, shelter and security for the animals they represent. Cointelegraph spoke to William ten Zijthoff, founder and chief executive officer of Coorest, to learn more about combining blockchain and sustainability with wildlife preservation. Coorest …

Andre Cronje, former Fantom Foundation technical adviser and Yearn.finance founder, resurfaced on Monday via Medium after announcing his departure from the DeFi and crypto space last month. In a post titled “The rise and fall of crypto culture,” Cronje expressed his lamentations of crypto culture as he called for increased regulation and legislation in the industry. When Cronje and his colleague Anton Nell tweeted about the fate of all the applications and services they had built, they offered no other details as to their personal motivations. They even proceeded to deactivate their Twitter accounts on March 6. Now, readers of …

South Africa has taken another step closer to implementing its central bank digital currency (CBDC) as the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) concludes a technical proof-of-concept for the project. The project, titled Project Khokha 2 (PK2), is the second phase of SARB’s Project Khokha (PK1), launched in 2018. It experimented with distributed ledger technology (DLT) for interbank payments' settlement, successfully replicating the banks’ “SAMOS” real-time gross settlement system. This second phase, PK2 was launched in February 2021 and tested DLT with clearing, trading and settlement within the proof-of-concept environment with industry participants Absa, FirstRand, JSE Limited, Nedbank and Standard Bank …

Cryptocurrency adoption in Africa is on the march, despite socioeconomic factors and headwinds. A positive report by cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin shows that crypto transactions increased by up to 2,670% in 2022. An astonishing growth trend, the steep influx relates to the low values that have been observed during previous periods. The number of crypto transactions in Africa constitutes roughly 2.8% of global volumes. Johnny Lyu, CEO of KuCoin, told Cointelegraph that “the adoption of digital assets in Africa will continue to grow exponentially,” adding that “African countries have the highest crypto adoption rate in the world, outperforming even the biggest …

As part of a series of amendments to South Africa’s financial laws, crypto-asset service providers will become accountable institutions. A report from the South African treasury announced further crypto regulations “to be finalized during 2022.” In brief, the proposed changes will ensure that “any person providing advice or intermediary services related to crypto assets must be recognized as a financial services provider under the act and must comply with the act’s requirements." Marius Reitz, the Luno crypto platform General Manager for South Africa shed light on the changes, commenting that “credible crypto players welcome regulation,” adding “regulation is a vital …