Crypto license in South Africa
Extra asset buffer
Запас активов
at least R3 million
не меньше 3 млн рэндов
Liquid assets
Ликвидные активы
4 to 13 weeks of costs
4–13 недель расходов
Transfer rule since
Правило переводов с
30 April 2025
30 апреля 2025 года
Penalty ceiling
Потолок штрафа
R50 million
50 млн рэндов
When a crypto asset service licence applies to you
You advise South African clients
The licence follows the client rather than the office: a provider abroad advising residents of South Africa needs the same authorisation as one with a Johannesburg address.
You applied late and kept trading
Only firms that filed by the November 2023 cut-off may keep operating while their file is considered. Everyone else stops until authorisation arrives.
Your staff never sat the exams
The exemption from the regulatory examinations expired on 30 June 2025 and was not extended, so key individuals need the papers or the licence is at risk.
You move client coins across wallets
Transfers carry their own directive: information has to travel alongside the coin, in force since 30 April 2025, and no category of provider is exempt.
What you get
- An honest read on whether your model clears the bar
- A business plan written the way the regulator reads one
- Two registrations handled together, conduct and money laundering
- Soundness figures your auditor can sign
- A calendar for the half-yearly and annual returns
South Africa crypto licence requirements
Two authorities, and neither replaces the other
South Africa did not write a separate crypto statute. In October 2022 the Financial Sector Conduct Authority declared a crypto asset to be a financial product under the advisory and intermediary services legislation, pulling providers into a regime that already existed. Licensing opened on 1 June 2023 and firms already trading had to file by 30 November 2023. Separately, the money laundering schedule made a crypto asset service provider an accountable institution from 19 December 2022.
Two registrations, filed separately
A licensed provider registers twice with the Financial Intelligence Centre: as a crypto asset service provider, and under the entry covering licensed providers of financial services. Neither is optional, changes are notified within ninety days, and failure to register is itself non-compliance.
What the fit and proper bar tests
- Operational ability: a business plan and model description that actually set out your crypto activity and the frameworks behind it.
- Competency: demonstrated knowledge and practical experience of crypto assets, plus the examinations.
- Financial soundness: assets must exceed liabilities at all times, and current assets must exceed current liabilities.
- Liquidity: liquid assets of four weeks of annual expenditure for advice and intermediary work, eight weeks where you manage client investments, thirteen where you hold client assets.
- A further buffer of at least three million rand where the licence covers client assets.
- An early warning notice the moment any of those margins comes within a tenth of the minimum.
Money laundering duties, on top
The intelligence centre's directive on transfers has applied since 30 April 2025: originator and beneficiary information must accompany a crypto asset transfer, and the supervisors cannot exempt anyone from it. Alongside it sit the risk management and compliance programme, an appointed person responsible for compliance, and the reporting the legislation prescribes.
What the numbers look like
| Requirement | Figure |
|---|---|
| Liquid assets, advice and intermediary licence | 4/52 of annual expenditure |
| Liquid assets, managing client investments | 8/52 of annual expenditure |
| Liquid assets, holding client assets | 13/52 of annual expenditure |
| Additional assets over liabilities | at least R3 million |
| Transfer information duty in force since | 30 April 2025 |
What the annual charge depends on
There is no flat licence fee. The conduct authority is funded by a levy: a base figure for your licence category plus an amount per key individual and representative averaged over the year, up to a ceiling. Hiring changes what you pay; the category changes the base.
What working unlicensed costs
Working without authorisation invites regulatory action: by December 2025 the authority had opened eighty-one investigations into unlicensed providers, fifty-six still open. On the money laundering side sanctions run from a caution through a suspension of business activities to a penalty of up to fifty million rand for a company. Re-applying is allowed on full compliance, but the activity stops until the licence is granted.
There is no South Africa page on this site. For the reporting and supervision that follow a licence anywhere, see licensing and compliance; to compare this regime with the next, crypto and fintech licensing.
Sources: General Notice 1350 of 2022, Gazette 47334 of 19 October 2022; Determination of Fit and Proper Requirements, Board Notice 194 of 2017, Gazette 41321, ss. 48-49 and Table B; Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001, ss. 43B, 45C and 61A, Schedule 1 items 12 and 22; Directive 9 of 2024 with the advisory of 17 April 2025; conduct authority release of 15 December 2025.
Stages of work
Decide which licence categories you need
Advice and intermediary services sit in one category, managing client investments in another, and a provider often needs both. The answer sets your liquidity floor and the levy base, so it goes first.
Write the business plan the regulator reads
Declined files failed on exactly this: a plan describing neither the crypto activity nor the frameworks behind it. We write it against the operational ability requirement rather than for an investor.
Clear the people
Key individuals are named, their crypto knowledge and experience documented, their examinations confirmed. Since 30 June 2025 no exemption is left to fall back on.
Put the numbers on paper, then file
Annual expenditure is calculated the way the determination defines it, with bonuses, directors' emoluments, depreciation and bad debts stripped out. The forms then cover business information, categories, fitness and propriety, representatives, operational ability and the auditor.
Register with the intelligence centre, twice
The crypto asset entry and the licensed provider entry are separate registrations, and both must be in place. Missing either is non-compliance.
Stand up the money laundering programme
The risk management and compliance programme, the appointed compliance person, client due diligence, and the transfer information duty, in force without exemption since 30 April 2025.
Then the returns
Financial soundness returns go in half-yearly or annually by category, the half-yearly ones within forty-five days of the half year end, and changes to registered particulars within ninety days.
Our case studies
FAQ
Discuss
the Task
Speak to our team
Speak to our team. Tell us about your task –
we’ll help you with it in any jurisdiction.