South Africa’s financial regulators are laying the groundwork for the “phased and structured” regulation of cryptocurrencies. The move presents a reversal of the largely hands-off approach taken for the past seven years and has been driven by increasingly high levels of retail interest in crypto in the country. In a position paper published on Friday, the country’s Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group, or IFWG, under the aegis of the Crypto Assets Regulatory Working Group, laid out a roadmap for introducing a regulatory framework that will center on crypto asset service providers. South Africa’s initial national policy toward crypto has until now …

Magda Wierzycka, one of the richest women in South Africa and CEO of financial services company Sygnia, said Tesla CEO Elon Musk would likely have been investigated by authorities regarding recent allegations over his manipulation of crypto prices — if his target had been almost anything other than Bitcoin. In an interview with Bruce Whitfield at the Money Show this week, Wierzycka said Musk’s recent social media activity on the price of Bitcoin (BTC) should have made him the subject of investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, if Bitcoin were more of a traditional company. The …

South Africa is the latest country to begin exploring the possibility of creating its own sovereign digital currency. According to a release issued on Tuesday, the South African Reserve Bank has begun preliminary feasibility studies about the “desirability and appropriateness” of a retail central bank digital currency. As part of its announcement, the SARB defined a retail CBDC as a cash-complimentary sovereign digital currency issued by the central bank suitable for electronic payments. “The objective of the feasibility study is to consider how the issuance of a general-purpose CBDC will feed into the SARB’s policy position and mandate,” South Africa’s …

The first-ever virtual version of Blockchain Africa delivered an optimistic outlook for the cryptocurrency and blockchain space in the continent as the world settles into a new normal dictated by COVID-19. The conference featured a number of well-known industry commentators, participants and thought leaders from around the world who addressed a completely virtual audience. The event attracted around 4,000 attendees online, according to organizer Sonya Kuhnel, despite going virtual in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A major highlight of the conference was an insightful keynote address from Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson on Africa’s burgeoning position as a hotbed for …

The seventh session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development convened earlier this month with the theme “Building forward better: Towards a resilient and green Africa to achieve the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063” and to promote the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Amina Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, pointed out that developing a just, fair economic model that embraces green and renewable energy, resilient infrastructure, and digitalization — while protecting natural resources by broadening partnerships for science, technology and innovation — could unleash the region’s green potential and fuel economic transformation. UNECA’s digital …

South African crypto firms are threatening to move abroad if local lawmakers are unable to provide regulatory clarity to its domestic digital asset industry. Speaking to Bloomberg, Sean Sanders, the CEO of local crypto investment platform Revix — who plan to relocate their head office to the United Kingdom, described the South African government as being “incredibly slow” in clarifying regulatory guidelines for the crypto industry. “That leads to businesses looking internationally. In an unregulated environment, a customer arrives at our platform with skepticism, and rightfully so,” he said, adding: South Africa seems to go in the opposite direction of …

Authorities in South Africa appear to be paying closer attention to the cryptocurrency space in 2021 in the wake of a major Bitcoin (BTC) Ponzi scheme and increased trading activity. As a result, the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority has called for tighter controls of the crypto space following the collapse of what has been described as the biggest Ponzi scheme the country has ever seen. In December 2020, Mirror Trading International went into provisional liquidation after one of its directors allegedly skipped the country, taking with him access to a copious amount of Bitcoin that investors had entrusted …

South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority is sounding the cryptocurrency scam alarm once again. In a press release issued on Thursday, the FSCA enjoined the public to do their own due diligence before investing in any crypto-related project. According to the FSCA the high-risk nature of the crypto investment space is being further exacerbated by the multitude of elaborate cryptocurrency scams in the country. Indeed, as previously reported by Cointelegraph, the spate of crypto scams in South Africa is pushing the authorities towards stricter regulatory control over the industry. Back in January, interim liquidators of an alleged South African Bitcoin …

South African regulators are seeking to exercise more control over cryptocurrency trading following the collapse of what was alleged to be the largest Ponzi scheme the country has ever seen. Self-proclaimed Bitcoin (BTC) trading firm Mirror Trading International was placed in provisional liquidation in December 2020 as investors tried and failed to withdraw their funds. The firm claimed to have attracted over 260,000 memberships worldwide, handling a reported 23,000 Bitcoin — a sum now worth in the region of $716 million. However, an investigation by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority revealed the firm kept no accounting records, nor any kind …

Less than a month after a Cape Town High Court granted a provisional order of liquidation against Mirror Trading International, the liquidators are seeking expanded powers to investigate the company and recover investor funds. According to Herman Bester, one of the four appointed liquidators, the team needs to operate across multiple jurisdictions to ascertain the full scope of MTI’s operation. The liquidators are currently attempting to trace all the company’s assets. After this process, the team will submit a formal report to the court indicating the likelihood of successfully returning investor funds to the victims of the alleged scam. According …

As technological innovations continue to spread across Africa, the continent could provide some unique use cases for blockchain technology. African has been continually driving innovation in a number of spaces, with mobile payments a prime example of the potential for technology to drastically improve the lives of everyday Africans. While many countries in Africa are still considered to be developing economies, some of its most prominent states have been at the forefront of technological innovation. The use of blockchain technology is becoming part of the equation as it permeates different industries and institutions. Michelle Chivunga, CEO and founder of digital …

Sub-Saharan Africa has no doubt suffered many regulatory setbacks in adopting cryptocurrencies. With most countries in the region struggling not to buckle under economic uncertainties and pressures looming over them even as the ripple effects of COVID-19 set in, it would appear that many Africans, especially millennials, aren’t waiting for the government anymore. The main issue inhibiting regulation seems to be a combination of resistance and indecision both from regulators, which has majorly been a result of little or no understanding of cryptocurrencies. Speaking to Cointelegraph on the attitude of regulatory bodies in Africa toward cryptocurrencies, Andrew Nevin, partner and …