A major South African bank has joined the industry coalition fighting draft rules that would stop local companies from making cross-border payments in cryptocurrency.
GoTyme Bank — with just over 13 million customers — confirmed it has signed up to Catastrophe, the coalition campaigning against the draft crypto asset manual published in August by National Treasury and the Reserve Bank’s financial surveillance department.
It now appears on the campaign’s website alongside founding members VALR, Luno, EasyEquities and AltCoinTrader. According to VALR CEO Farzam Ehsani, the coalition now has the backing of 203 organisations and 5 677 individuals.
What the draft rules actually do
Two provisions sit at the centre of the fight:
- Cross-border payments. The draft would stop SA companies from using licensed crypto providers for cross-border transactions that are perfectly lawful when done through a bank.
- The one-way wallet rule. Individuals could move crypto from a regulated platform into a personal wallet — but not back out again.
That second rule is the one every self-custody holder should care about. It draws a line not at the transaction, but at the technology — and it treats a personal wallet as a dead end.
“Not a position on whether, but how”
GoTyme’s argument is not that crypto should go unregulated. Its spokeswoman, Pontsho Ramontsha, put it plainly:
“This is not a position on whether crypto should be regulated — it should be. It is a position on how: consistently, fairly and aligned with regulatory purpose rather than technology labels.”
The bank also points to a practical consequence: apply strict standards to banks but ambiguous ones to unregulated offshore platforms, and activity does not disappear — it becomes less visible and less traceable, with fewer consumer safeguards attached.
Why the Reserve Bank is pushing anyway
The Reserve Bank has warned that crypto payments are borderless and present a route around exchange controls. National Treasury signalled in February that crypto would be brought under exchange-control rules. Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago has argued that similar payment activities should face similar regulatory expectations “whether they are performed by a bank or a fintech”.
Not final — and the clock is ticking
The Reserve Bank told TechCentral the rules are not final and “remain subject to refinement following the consideration of all public comments and stakeholder engagements”.
Public comment closes on Wednesday, 30 September 2026.
What this means for Bitcoin
For anyone who holds their own keys in South Africa, this is the story of the year — because it is not really about payments. It is about whether a rule can be written around what a thing is rather than what someone does with it.
If a personal wallet can receive but not send, then self-custody stops being custody. That is the line worth watching on 30 September.
Source: TechCentral, “Major bank joins fight against draft crypto rules” (28 September 2026) and @MoneyBadgerPay.