South African Court: Transferring Bitcoin to overseas exchanges constitutes capital outflow and must comply with foreign exchange controls

According to IOL, the High Court of Gauteng Province in South Africa ruled that Bitcoin falls under "capital" and "currency" within the South African foreign exchange control system, and ordered the confiscation of nearly 6 million rand worth of Bitcoin assets. The court determined that a trader transferred nearly 1,680 Bitcoins to a wallet accessible only through an overseas registered cryptocurrency exchange via their Luno account between January 2018 and March 2020, which amounted to exporting capital abroad without approval from the Treasury, violating foreign exchange control regulations.

Meanwhile, the South African Treasury released a draft consultation on capital flow management for 2026 last month, aimed at modernizing the management of cross-border capital flows by reducing pre-approval for transactions, strengthening reporting, and monitoring high-impact, high-risk cross-border transactions.