Rand stablecoin issuers have positively received the treasury's plans to revise rules concerning cross-border cryptocurrency operations. They insist that their tokens should be treated as means of payment, not as capital movement, and that companies should be able to use them.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana informed parliament on Wednesday that the draft capital outflow management provisions, which included cross-border regulation of crypto assets, had received thousands of comments, and that 'we need to change the approach to these amendments.'
In his statement on medium-term fiscal policy, he clarified that the treasury would abandon preliminary permits and instead assess transactions for legality and tax compliance, guided by the recommendations of the Financial Stability Council. Although a second revised draft will follow, the date of its release was not specified, nor were the specific provisions that would change.
Support for stablecoin issuers
Simon Dingl, co-founder of the Rand stablecoin Zarp, stated that this announcement is 'a clear sign that the treasury and the Reserve Bank have listened to the thousands of submissions on the draft rules.'
He emphasized that 'a fully collateralized Rand stablecoin, such as Zarp, is not capital leaving the country.' Dingl added that treating every stablecoin payment as a capital outflow, while the same payment via a bank is not considered one, never made sense, and they hope this distinction will be clearly reflected in the second draft.
Furthermore, he called for the abolition of the ban on companies moving cryptocurrency across borders, as 'business-to-business payments are where stablecoins bring the most value.'
Previously, in August, the crypto asset guidelines draft stipulated a ban on South African companies moving cryptocurrency across the border in any direction, placing the young Rand stablecoin market before a potential regulatory hurdle.
Control over exchange operations
Dingl also noted that 'pre-approval regimes do not practically stop capital outflows. They push activity abroad and into the shadows,' arguing that exchange control accelerated the outflow of funds it was supposed to stop. He concluded that the country should abolish exchange control, and this is a positive step in that direction.
ZAR Supercoin from Super Group also welcomed this shift. Gideon Graves, Managing Director of Supercoin, called the move towards assessing transactions for legality and tax compliance a 'positive step.'
He explained that a licensed Rand-backed stablecoin can function as a transparent local payment instrument. When two South Africans make a transaction using ZARsc, the Rand backing the coin remains in a South African bank account.
Graves expressed hope that the mention of the FSC means 'rules that recognize the difference between an internal Rand stablecoin and other crypto assets.'
Johann Olivier, Partner and Global Co-Head of Digital Assets at Forvis Mazars, noted that this shift recognizes that 'regulation should identify and eliminate actual risks, not prevent legitimate participation before it begins.'
According to data published Tuesday by the crypto payment company MoneyBadger, the monthly purchase value in Zaru, a Rand stablecoin issued by BlockTower South Africa, increased from R484,207 in June to 1.28 million in September, which is 2.64 times the June level. The growth then slowed to 10.6% between August and September.
Currently, in 2026, Zaru accounted for 7.7% of order checkout expenses on the MoneyBadger network, trailing Bitcoin at 39.9% and the dollar stablecoin USDT at 36.1%.
ZARsc recorded R4,408 in September, a 286.9% increase from August, when the base was low. This growth occurred during the Luno Pay reward campaign, which ran from June 1 to January 31, 2027, under which Luno clients received 15% back on purchases of R100 or more paid with Zaru, capped at R500 per 30-day period. The reward is paid in Tether Gold, a tokenized gold asset, not in Rand or Zaru. Luno is now promoting this reward at Engen gas stations.
MoneyBadger also has ties to Zaru sponsors. Its CEO and co-founder, Karel van Wyk, founded Luno, one of the three shareholders of BlockTower alongside Sanlam. Luno is also one of the exchanges MoneyBadger works with. MoneyBadger figures cover only confirmed checkout activity on its own network, not overall volume or issuer trading.
Zaru was launched in February with support from Luno, Sanlam, EasyEquities, and Lesaka. Its latest reserve confirmation report, conducted according to the agreed Moore audit procedure on October 1, showed that turnover on August 31 was 61.6 million tokens, compared to 58.4 million at the end of June.
Zarp, launched in 2021, operates as a representative of the licensed financial services provider Inves Capital, with its reserves managed by Old Mutual Wealth. Its public dashboard showed a circulation of R81.9 million on Thursday, a slight change from R81.5 million in August, and it is backed by reserves of R93.3 million.
Olivier from Forvis Mazars concluded: 'If South African businesses cannot effectively interact with international platforms and new financial infrastructure, the world market will not wait.' He added that the market will continue to develop using USD, EUR, and other currency-backed instruments, potentially making the Rand increasingly peripheral.