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Zimbabwe’s government said Friday it will require crypto businesses to register annually and pay fees. The move brings the country’s largely informal crypto market under regulatory oversight for the first time. The rules apply to companies that buy, sell, transfer or safeguard virtual assets.
FIU Registration Becomes Mandatory for Zimbabwe Crypto Businesses
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube issued the new rules. Crypto businesses must register each year with the Financial Intelligence Unit, an anti-money laundering body housed within the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Registration will cost $500 per year. Operating without it is now an offense.
The rules mark Zimbabwe’s first dedicated regulatory framework for the sector. The sector has operated largely underground until now. The rules do not lift a 2018 ban that barred banks and other financial institutions from handling cryptocurrency. Instead, they built a registration structure around the informal market that ban created.
Hyperinflation History Shaped Crypto Demand in Zimbabwe
The 2018 ban pushed crypto trading onto peer-to-peer platforms and social media. Most activity has remained there since. Zimbabwe’s monetary history has shaped crypto adoption heavily.
Hyperinflation in the late 2000s wiped out savings and pensions. Repeated currency changes eroded trust in the banking system. That history drove demand for Bitcoin and other digital assets as alternative stores of value and as a way to move money outside the formal financial system. Remittances have also fueled adoption.
Banks rank as the most expensive transfer channel into the country, according to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide report.
Zimbabwe Joins Broader African Push to Regulate Digital Assets
Zimbabwe’s regulations arrive amid a wider global push to regulate cryptocurrencies. That push follows exchange failures, fraud cases and money laundering concerns. Zimbabwe now joins South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Mauritius among African nations that have moved to regulate digital assets as crypto use across the continent grows.
Sub-Saharan Africa received more than $205 billion in on-chain value between July 2024 and June 2025. That marks a 52% year-on-year increase, according to Chainalysis’s 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index.
Harare-based crypto trader Jeffrey Mutambiranwa called the move a welcome development. He said traders will no longer need to operate underground.
