On August 3, the National Treasury and South African Reserve Bank published the draft Crypto Assets Manual for Cross-Border Activities.
Super Money SA, the FSCA-licensed issuer of the Supercoin rand-backed stablecoin ZARsc, supports the intent of the draft manual, and proposes a specific text the framework should adopt.
For the first time, cross-border crypto asset activity would sit inside a comprehensive framework with the force of law.
Supercoin and Super Money SA’s starting position is supportive. Most people in crypto treat regulation as a cost. Supercoin treats it as the product.
Anyone can write a smart contract that mints a token called rand. Almost nobody can get licensed, banked, audited and insured to do it properly.
A framework with a real perimeter, real capital requirements and real local presence raises the floor for everyone. Supercoin said so before it was published.
Regulation should recognise the difference
Supercoin’s comment asks for one distinction the draft does not yet draw. As drafted, the framework treats every crypto asset the same way.
A rand-denominated stablecoin issued by an FSCA-licensed South African company, backed by rand at a South African bank and attested monthly, is treated identically to a dollar-pegged token issued offshore with no local licence and no local accountability.
Those are not the same object and they do not create the same risk. When a regulated rand stablecoin moves, the rand does not; it stays in reserve at a South African bank. What changes hands is a claim that can only be redeemed here, in rand, through a licensed provider.
When a regulated rand stablecoin moves, the rand does not; it stays in reserve at a South African bank
— Gideon Greaves
A rand that leaves as a rand and comes back as a rand has not left the currency. A rand converted into an offshore dollar token has. If the rules cannot tell those apart, the tightest constraints end up falling on the instrument that keeps South African value in rand. That is the opposite of what capital flow management is for.
So, the submission proposes a specific text: define the instrument, then classify it correctly.
The authorities have drawn this line before. The 2026 joint communication on Crypto Assets for Domestic Payment Purposes, issued by the Reserve Bank and the FSCA, recognised the potential of rand-pegged stablecoins as a domestic payment instrument, and indicated that foreign currency-pegged stablecoins were unlikely to be accepted for domestic use.
That distinction was drawn for domestic payments. It should carry into the cross-border framework as well.
Who gets access to crypto rails?
Two further points. As drafted, only natural persons may transact cross-border in crypto assets; resident companies and trusts are excluded. Yet exporters, remittance operators and payroll providers are exactly those who need cheaper settlement.
Excluding them does not stop the flow, it relocates it, to venues with no South African licence and accountability. And obligations should match the evidence the rail produces: settlement through a licensed provider leaves a permanent, timestamped record, with screening running continuously.
Where the framework can see more, it can afford to be more proportionate.
Keeping African value on African rails
The stakes are measured in cost. Sending money from South Africa cost an average of 15.65% in the third quarter of 2025, the highest of any G20 country, according to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide, and much of that value still routes through the US dollar before it reaches an African destination.
African value should move on African rails. South Africa has the licensing regime, the banking system and the market depth to be the place through which the continent settles. This framework will decide whether that happens here or somewhere else. We would like it to happen here, and we would like it to happen inside the rules.
This article was sponsored by Supercoin.
Investing in crypto assets may result in the loss of capital. This article is commentary on a draft regulatory framework and does not constitute financial advice, nor a solicitation to buy, trade or invest in any crypto asset.
Super Money SA (Pty) Ltd is an FSCA-authorised Financial Services Provider, FSP 53458, licensed as a Crypto Asset Service Provider.
