South Africa’s central bank flags crypto, stablecoins as financial risk

The South African Reserve Bank issued its second financial stability report for 2025, identifying digital assets and stablecoins as a new risk as the number of users in the country continues to grow.

In a report released on Tuesday, South Africa’s central bank identified “crypto assets and stablecoins” as a new risk for technology-enabled financial innovation. The bank reported that the number of combined users on the country’s three largest crypto exchanges reached 7.8 million as of July, with about $1.5 billion held in custody at the end of 2024.

“Due to their exclusively digital – and therefore borderless – nature, crypto assets can be used to circumvent the provisions of the Exchange Control Regulations,” said the report, referring to regulations to control the inflows and outflows of funds to South Africa.

In addition to crypto assets like Bitcoin (BTC), XRP (XRP), Ether (ETH), and Solana (SOL), the central bank said that there had been a “structural shift” in the adoption of stablecoins based on a significant increase in trading volume since 2022: 

“Whereas Bitcoin and other popular crypto assets were the main conduit for trading crypto assets until 2022, USD-pegged stablecoins have become the preferred trading pair on South African crypto asset trading platforms […] This is due to the notably lower price volatility of stablecoins compared to unbacked crypto assets.”

Related: South Korea stablecoin framework stalls as regulators split over banks’ role

The Financial Stability Board, a financial watchdog for entities in the G20, reported in October that South Africa had “no framework in place”  for regulating global stablecoins, and only “partial regulations in place” for cryptocurrencies. The central bank said that “risks may build up undetected” from crypto, posing a threat to the country’s financial stability until an appropriate regulatory framework is established.

Different story with South Africa’s government on crypto

The central bank’s warning echoed similar sentiments from 2017, when deputy governor Francois Groepe said issuing digital currencies would be too risky for the country.

However, among policymakers in South Africa’s government, the sentiment may be slightly more bullish.

In 2022, the country’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority designated cryptocurrency as a financial product and subsequently issued licenses for crypto companies to conduct business.