{"id":390894,"date":"2026-08-22T21:08:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T21:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/390894\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T21:08:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T21:08:38","slug":"zimbabwe-moves-to-regulate-cryptocurrency-sector-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/390894\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe moves to regulate cryptocurrency sector"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARARE, June 12 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s government said on Friday it will require cryptocurrency businesses to register and pay annual fees, \u200bas it seeks to bring the largely informal market under regulatory \u200coversight.<\/p>\n

Businesses involved in buying, selling, transferring or safeguarding virtual assets must register each year with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), an anti-money laundering body housed within the central bank, under \u200bregulations issued by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube.<\/p>\n

Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Registration will cost $500 per year, \u200band operating without it is now an offence.<\/p>\n

CRYPTO USE IN \u2060ZIMBABWE<\/p>\n

The regulations are Zimbabwe’s first dedicated rules for a sector that has \u200blong operated without a legal framework, largely underground. The government banned financial institutions \u200bfrom trading cryptocurrency in 2018, pushing traders onto peer-to-peer platforms and social media.<\/p>\n

Hyperinflation in the late 2000s wiped out savings and pensions, while repeated currency changes eroded trust in \u200bthe banking system, driving demand for Bitcoin and other digital currencies alternative \u200bstores of value and means of transfer outside the formal system.<\/p>\n

Remittances have fuelled adoption, with \u200cbanks \u2060being the most expensive transfer channel, according to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide report.<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe’s move comes amid a broader global push to regulate cryptocurrencies following a series of high-profile exchange failures, fraud cases and concerns over money \u200blaundering.<\/p>\n

It joins a growing \u200bnumber of \u2060African countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Mauritius, that have moved to regulate digital assets as crypto use \u200bacross the continent surges.<\/p>\n

Sub-Saharan Africa received more than $205 billion in \u200bon-chain value – \u2060the total dollar value of cryptocurrency transactions recorded on blockchains – between July 2024 and June 2025, a 52% year-on-year increase, according to the Chainalysis 2025 Global \u2060Crypto \u200bAdoption Index.<\/p>\n

“This is a welcome development … It’s also \u200bgood for traders that they don’t have to operate underground,” Jeffrey Mutambiranwa, a Harare crypto trader, \u200btold Reuters.<\/p>\n

Reporting by Chris Takudzwa Muronzi and Colleen Goko. Editing by Mark Potter<\/p>\n

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n

Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARARE, June 12 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s government said on Friday it will require cryptocurrency businesses to register and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[60],"tags":[488,3150,186639,3484,3485,3486,186640,186641,1783,698,710,703,712,707,701,186644,709,700,8238,715,495,1784,1788,1782,711,492,1585,1586,186643,491,493,714,17212,3151,1854,186642,1588,3153,1589,1405,1778,3155,3148,186637,3158,3160,186638,106,2533],"class_list":["post-390894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-zimbabwe","tag-afr","tag-bisv","tag-blkcc","tag-bnk","tag-bnks","tag-bsvc","tag-crycur","tag-cryplx","tag-destabn","tag-destabx","tag-destafn","tag-destbnx","tag-destd","tag-destdnp","tag-deste","tag-destef-business-future-of-money","tag-destfun","tag-destm","tag-destoustcm","tag-destozabsm","tag-destozatpm","tag-destpsc","tag-destrbn","tag-destrnp","tag-destucdptest","tag-eafr","tag-eci","tag-eco","tag-efbusiness-future-of-money","tag-emea","tag-emrg","tag-fin","tag-finreg","tag-fins","tag-frx","tag-ftech","tag-infl","tag-invbis","tag-mce","tag-mtpix","tag-pxp","tag-regs","tag-rsbiregulatory-oversight","tag-rulesfutureofmoney","tag-tech","tag-tmt","tag-topicmarkets-cryptocurrency","tag-zimbabwe","tag-zw"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}