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 ​regulations issued by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube.

Registration will cost $500 per year, ​and operating without it is now an offence.

CRYPTO USE IN ⁠ZIMBABWE

The regulations are Zimbabwe’s first dedicated rules for a sector that has ​long operated without a legal framework, largely underground. The government banned financial institutions ​from trading cryptocurrency in 2018, pushing traders onto peer-to-peer platforms and social media.

Hyperinflation in the late 2000s wiped out savings and pensions, while repeated currency changes eroded trust in ​the banking system, driving demand for Bitcoin and other digital currencies alternative ​stores of value and means of transfer outside the formal system.

Remittances have fuelled adoption, with ‌banks ⁠being the most expensive transfer channel, according to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide report.

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 ​laundering.

It joins a growing ​number of ⁠African countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Mauritius, that have moved to regulate digital assets as crypto use ​across the continent surges.

Sub-Saharan Africa received more than $205 billion in ​on-chain value – ⁠the 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 ⁠Crypto ​Adoption Index.

“This is a welcome development … It’s also ​good for traders that they don’t have to operate underground,” Jeffrey Mutambiranwa, a Harare crypto trader, ​told Reuters.

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