03/06/2026
Saffa and you used Crypto (Bitcoin) to extract assets from South Africa?
Or you sold an SA situs asset and took payment in Crypto?
FinSurv (aka Exchange Control) in a conundrum or have they just been granted the golden key to the crypto wallets?
What ever your hopes or opinion, the draft document on capital flows (replacing so called Excon Regulations) are now an extremely relevant but urgent project as we truly need a draft AD Manual to underpin amd understand the new draft capital flow regulations.
South Africa’s cryptocurrency jurisprudence has taken a dramatic turn, with two High Courts reaching opposite conclusions on the same central question: whether Bitcoin falls within the country’s exchange control framework.
In Mangundhla and Another v South African Reserve Bank and Others [2026] ZAGPJHC 579, the Johannesburg High Court ruled that Bitcoin constitutes both “money” and “capital” for the purposes of the Exchange Control Regulations. This decision upheld a SARB forfeiture order.
This stark contrast is evident in the Pretoria High Court’s decision in Standard Bank of South Africa v SARB [2025] ZAGPPHC 481. The Pretoria High Court held that cryptocurrency is neither money nor capital under the current Exchange Control Regulations.
The result is that two High Courts have reached fundamentally different conclusions on the same central question. This situation leaves taxpayers, crypto investors, exchanges, and advisors navigating conflicting authority.
Importantly, neither High Court decision has definitively settled the matter. The Standard Bank judgement remains subject to appellate scrutiny, and the Supreme Court of Appeal is expected to provide much-needed clarity. Until then, the uncertainty continues to affect various stakeholders.
The real question is no longer whether crypto is important enough to regulate. Instead, it is whether legislation drafted in 1961 (and now the new draft regulations on capital flow, which are not yet supported by a new draft Authorised Dealer (Ad) Manual) can adequately regulate a borderless digital asset that was created nearly half a century later.
Why not join me on June 24th to discuss this topic and the new draft guidance capital flow?
https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/x47a2ub?
