The South African Reserve Bank is raising a red flag, warning that the fast-growing use of crypto and stablecoins in the country could put the financial system at risk if regulations don’t catch up.
According to the central bank’s latest Financial Stability Review, South Africa’s crypto adoption has exploded. Nearly eight million people now use digital assets, and the country’s biggest exchanges are holding around $1.5 billion worth of customer funds. That’s a huge jump for a market that was once considered small and experimental.
But with that growth comes new concerns.
Stablecoins now dominate local crypto trading
The Reserve Bank says trading habits have shifted in a major way. Since 2022, stablecoins—mostly those tied to the U.S. dollar—have overtaken bitcoin as the most-used trading pair on South African platforms. People prefer them because they don’t swing wildly in price like normal cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana are still popular, but stablecoins are becoming the default option for many users.
Why regulators are worried
Because crypto is entirely digital and moves across borders with ease, the central bank says it can be used to bypass South Africa’s strict exchange-control rules. Those rules are designed to control money flowing in and out of the country.
What makes things more complicated is the lack of a clear regulatory framework for global stablecoins. South Africa has some rules for crypto, but almost none for stablecoins—despite how widely they’re used. The Financial Stability Board also pointed this out in its October review.
The Reserve Bank says this gap creates a risk: fast-growing activity with little oversight could eventually threaten the country’s financial stability.
Other government agencies are moving faster
The central bank’s concerns contrast with other regulators. In 2022, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority officially labeled crypto as a financial product, allowing exchanges and service providers to be licensed. Those licenses have already started rolling out.
Still, the Reserve Bank believes a bigger, coordinated national plan is needed—something that covers both cryptocurrencies and stablecoins more completely.
With nearly eight million South Africans involved in crypto and stablecoin usage rising quickly, the central bank says the country must move now to build stronger protections before the activity grows even larger and harder to control.
