According to TechCentral, finance minister Enoch Godongwana told parliament on 20 August 2026 that the Treasury will revise its draft capital-flow management regulations to move away from pre-approval of crypto transactions and instead assess each transaction for legitimacy and tax compliance, following the Financial Stability Board’s recommendations.
For the issuers of South African rand-backed stablecoins, digital tokens that are pegged to the rand and fully reserve-backed, the shift could mean that their tokens are treated as ordinary payments rather than capital outflows. Simon Dingle, co-founder of the stablecoin Zarp, called the announcement “a clear sign that Treasury and the Reserve Bank listened to the thousands of submissions on the draft rules”. He argued that a fully reserve-backed rand stablecoin “is not capital leaving the country” and that treating every stablecoin payment as a capital flow “never made sense”.
Stablecoins such as Zarp, ZAR Supercoin (ZARsc) from Super Group and Zaru from BlockTower South Africa have been growing in usage despite a draft crypto-asset manual released in August that would bar South African companies from moving crypto across borders in either direction. The manual would effectively create a regulatory wall around the nascent market.
Gideon Greaves, managing director of ZAR Supercoin, welcomed the Treasury’s move to assess transactions for legitimacy, describing it as “a positive step”. He said a licensed, rand-backed stablecoin can function as a transparent local payment, with the underlying rand staying in a South African bank account.
Wiehann Olivier, partner and global co-head of digital assets at Forvis Mazars, noted that the shift recognises that “regulation should identify and address actual risk rather than prevent legitimate participation before it begins”. The Treasury’s reference to the Financial Stability Board could lead to rules that distinguish domestic rand stablecoins from other crypto assets.
Data from crypto payments platform MoneyBadger shows that monthly checkout value in Zaru rose from R484 207 in June to R1.28 million in September, a 2.64-times increase, before slowing to a 10.6 % rise between August and September. So far in 2026, Zaru accounts for 7.7 % of checkout spending on MoneyBadger’s network, behind bitcoin at 39.9 % and the USDT stablecoin at 36.1 %. ZARsc recorded R4 408 in September, up 286.9 % from a low base in August, driven in part by a Luno Pay reward campaign that offers 15 % back on purchases of R100 or more paid with Zaru.
MoneyBadger’s figures cover only confirmed checkout activity on its own network and do not reflect issuer-wide circulation or trading. Zaru, launched in February 2024, has a reported circulation of 61.6 million tokens at the end of August, according to a proof-of-reserves report prepared by Moore. Zarp’s public dashboard showed R81.9 million in circulation as of 24 August, backed by reserves of R93.3 million.
The broader context is South Africa’s exchange-control regime, which requires pre-approval for cross-border capital movements. Critics, including stablecoin issuers, argue that such pre-approval pushes activity offshore and into the shadows, accelerating the very outflows the controls aim to prevent. If the Treasury’s revised draft removes the ban on companies moving crypto across borders, businesses could use stablecoins for efficient B2B payments and for interacting with international platforms.
While the Treasury has not set a date for the second draft, the announced change in approach signals a potential easing of the regulatory environment for domestic stablecoins. Companies that adopt these tokens may benefit from faster settlement, lower transaction costs and reduced reliance on traditional banking channels for cross-border trade.
For now, the exact provisions that will change remain unclear, and businesses should monitor the forthcoming draft for details on compliance requirements.
Read more about the regulatory landscape in our Tech & Telco coverage.
