South Africa’s regulator could license 36 crypto companies in December.
South Africa's main financial regulator, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), has reviewed 128 applications from crypto service asset providers (CASPs) but intends to discuss only 36 at its next meeting in December.
The numbers were published on November 30 by South African news outlet My Broadband. According to the publication, the FSCA plans to review 36 licensees' presentations at the Dec. 12 Licensing Executive Committee meeting. An additional 22 applications will be submitted on February 13. The last 14 applications must wait until March 12.
The fate of the rest of the applications was not disclosed by the authority, who explained that the assessment methodology is a combined assessment of customer onboarding, data protection, cyber risk management, demand management, complaint handling and credit collateral risk management. .
The FSCA also published the “Crypto Assets Market Study” for 2023 on the same day, November 30. The study shows that 60% of the crypto sold in South Africa are “unsupported crypto assets”, which means any other cryptocurrency. Stablecoins (26% market share) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs, 4% market share) and some centrally issued coins.
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According to the survey, the average crypto asset provider in South Africa (46%) has an annual revenue of between 1 and 50 million South African Rand ($53,000 and $2.7 million). And only 8% of all CASPs take more than 100 million rand ($5.4 million).
Source: Crypto Assets Markets Survey 2023
The highest monthly transaction value in the South African crypto market was recorded in November 2022, reaching over 8 billion rand (around $427 million).
By July 2023, the FSCA has warned that any CASP in the country will need to be licensed by the end of the year. The regulator intends to take “enforcement action” against anyone operating without a permit, which may include fines or closure.
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