GIDEON GREAVES | Supercoin draws a line regulators haven’t yet drawn

On August 3, the National Treasury and South African Reserve Bank published the draft Crypto Assets Manual for Cross-Border Activities.

Super Money SA, the FSCA-licensed issuer of the Supercoin rand-backed stablecoin ZARsc, supports the intent of the draft manual, and proposes a specific text the framework should adopt.

For the first time, cross-border crypto asset activity would sit inside a comprehensive framework with the force of law.

Supercoin and Super Money SA’s starting position is supportive. Most people in crypto treat regulation as a cost. Supercoin treats it as the product.

Anyone can write a smart contract that mints a token called rand. Almost nobody can get licensed, banked, audited and insured to do it properly.

A framework with a real perimeter, real capital requirements and real local presence raises the floor for everyone. Supercoin said so before it was published.

Supercoin’s comment asks for one distinction the draft does not yet draw. As drafted, the framework treats every crypto asset the same way.

A rand-denominated stablecoin issued by an FSCA-licensed South African company, backed by rand at a South African bank and attested monthly, is treated identically to a dollar-pegged token issued offshore with no local licence and no local accountability.

Those are not the same object and they do not create the same risk. When a regulated rand stablecoin moves, the rand does not; it stays in reserve at a South African bank. What changes hands is a claim that can only be redeemed here, in rand, through a licensed provider.

When a regulated rand stablecoin moves, the rand does not; it stays in reserve at a South African bank

A rand that leaves as a rand and comes back as a rand has not left the currency. A rand converted into an offshore dollar token has. If the rules cannot tell those apart, the tightest constraints end up falling on the instrument that keeps South African value in rand. That is the opposite of what capital flow management is for.

So, the submission proposes a specific text: define the instrument, then classify it correctly.

The authorities have drawn this line before. The 2026 joint communication on Crypto Assets for Domestic Payment Purposes, issued by the Reserve Bank and the FSCA, recognised the potential of rand-pegged stablecoins as a domestic payment instrument, and indicated that foreign currency-pegged stablecoins were unlikely to be accepted for domestic use.

That distinction was drawn for domestic payments. It should carry into the cross-border framework as well.