South Africa’s regulated crypto industry has stopped lobbying quietly and gone public.
VALR, Luno, AltCoinTrader and EasyEquities, along with MoneyBadger, Altify, Chainex, Block Markets Africa and the Freedom Foundation, have formed a coalition called CATASTROPHE to fight draft regulations from National Treasury and the South African Reserve Bank. The name is an acronym, deliberately. It stands for Crypto Asset Taskforce for Advancing Sound, Technology-Neutral Regulation for Opportunity, Prosperity and a Healthy Economy.
The group launched on Tuesday and says it will dissolve the moment it gets what it wants.
What the Draft Rules Would Actually Do
The proposals sit inside the draft Capital Flow Management Regulations and an accompanying Crypto Assets Manual, which together would replace exchange control regulations dating to 1961.
Two provisions have the industry alarmed. The first would stop South African businesses using regulated crypto rails for otherwise legitimate international transactions, which in practice rules out stablecoins as a payment method and pushes companies back onto slower, costlier fiat channels.
The second is stranger. Individuals could still withdraw assets from a licensed local platform into a personal wallet, but moving those assets back into a regulated South African platform would be classed as non-permissible. The coalition calls it a one-way door out of the regulated system, which is an odd outcome for rules meant to improve oversight.
Treasury’s reasoning hasn’t shifted since it first signalled the move. Because crypto payments are borderless, it argues, they offer a route around exchange controls, and the manual is meant to close that gap.
The Governor’s Own Words
The coalition’s sharpest argument isn’t its own. At the MTN Group Fintech 2026 Summit last week, SARB Governor Lesetja Kganyago said the principle is straightforward: similar payment activities should face similar regulatory expectations, whether a bank or a fintech is doing them.
CATASTROPHE’s point is that the draft rules do the opposite. A cross-border payment settled through a bank stays permitted. The same economic transaction settled on a blockchain does not. That isn’t technology-neutral regulation by the governor’s own definition.
The coalition also says billions of rand in foreign investment are already on hold while the market waits to see how this lands. Moneyweb approached SARB for comment and had not received a response at the time of publication.
The Courts Haven’t Settled This Either
Underneath the policy fight is a genuine legal mess, and it’s the part most coverage skips.
SARB is trying to bring crypto under the Currency and Exchanges Act of 1961, itself descended from a 1933 law. Whether that’s even possible is contested. In a 2025 Pretoria High Court case, Judge Mandlenkosi Motha found cryptocurrency was not subject to South Africa’s existing foreign exchange regulations. In June 2026, Johannesburg High Court Judge Stuart Wilson expressly departed from that finding, ruling Bitcoin constitutes capital under the exchange control framework and can be forfeited for breaches.
Two High Courts, opposite conclusions, no resolution. The regulations being drafted now sit on top of that unresolved question.
What Happens Next
Public comment closes on 30 September 2026, after which the manual and the capital flow regulations go back for revision. CATASTROPHE is asking individuals and businesses to endorse its campaign before then.
The industry’s core position is not that crypto should escape oversight. It’s that a payment should be regulated according to what it does, not the technology carrying it. Whether Treasury and SARB read the coalition’s launch as constructive pressure or as an industry trying to carve out an exemption will shape what comes back after the comment window shuts.
