According to a South African regulator, it is planning on issuing licenses to 60 crypto platforms by the end of this month.
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) revealed that late last year, it had received about 300 applications and it was still processing most of them.
The Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act will be used by regulators in the country to regulate the activities of crypto entities.
The applications
By the end of March, the FSCA is planning on issuing licenses to about 60 crypto platforms from the 300 applications that it had received before closing the process on November 30th, 2023.
The FSCA Commissioner, Unathi Kamlana, stated that the regulatory body was still processing the applications it had received.
He also added that there was a possibility that they would issue more licenses, but they do would do so in phases.
It had previously been reported that regulators in South Africa had been warming up to the idea of crypto asset regulation.
The country has declared crypto assets as financial products and this has proven to be quite helpful in initiating the process for formalizing the activities of crypto-related businesses, such as crypto exchanges.
The updates
Recently, it had been reported that stablecoins are likely to be classified as a ‘particular type of crypto asset’ by the Intergovernmental Working Group (IFWG) in its consultation paper.
Furthermore, the IFWG is also looking into the possible impact of tokenization on the local financial markets.
The FSCA Commissioner said in an interview that South Africa has decided to use existing laws for regulating the activities of crypto platforms.
Kamlana said that even if they decided to develop a special regulatory framework for the crypto market, it would still not eliminate the risks because they would still be present.
The law
Bloomberg had previously reported that the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act will be used by regulators in South Africa to monitor the activities of crypto entities.
Thanks to this law, aggrieved consumers in the country would have access to legal recourse and protections that had been unavailable previously.
The same law gives regulators the power to pursue crypto entities that violate some provisions of the FAIS Act.
Kamlana stated that once they start licensing and supervising crypto entities, they would be able to identify the gaps that are left and not closed by the existing laws and regulatory framework.
He said that once they discover the said gaps, they would be able to build on them and discover what they are.
This would undoubtedly help regulate the growing and expanding crypto industry in the country.