South Africa’s central bank is raising fresh concerns as stablecoin adoption skyrockets and regulatory gaps widen across the financial system.
South Africa’s Reserve Bank (SARB) has warned that crypto and stablecoins are becoming an emerging systemic risk due to the country’s lack of a complete regulatory framework. In its latest Financial Stability Review, the bank said traders are rapidly shifting from volatile coins like Bitcoin to dollar-linked stablecoins, creating oversight challenges the existing rules cannot handle.
Herco Steyn, SARB’s lead macroprudential specialist, said the issue is simple: crypto is borderless and fast-moving, while South Africa’s exchange-control laws were never designed for it. “Without a complementary and full regulatory framework, we do not have sufficient oversight,” he noted.
Stablecoin use has exploded from under 4 billion rand in 2022 to nearly 80 billion rand in 2024. Platforms like Luno, VALR, and Ovex now serve 7.8 million users holding over 25.3 billion rand in assets. Regulators plan tighter rules on cross-border crypto flows as the ECB issues similar warnings about stablecoins draining deposits from traditional banks.
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