I know nothing about cryptocurrency, but I decided to do some diligent googling to try and self-teach the basics. The first search result was the following: “The People’s Bank of China makes cryptocurrency illegal”. The People’s Bank is Beijing’s monetary authority, and this notice was issued alongside 9 other government agencies, including the Bureau of Public Security.

The reasons for the ban include the fact that cryptocurrency has directly increased the statistic of money laundering, digital commerce cannot be regulated as they are not linked to any banking institutions and it seriously dangers citizens assets. Other countries that have banned cryptocurrency include Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Russia, Egypt and Morocco. The most central reasoning for this ban is that this is an entire separate economy that cannot be regulated.

Whether or not we are headed in this direction is unclear at this point; however, in my opinion it is only a matter of time that cryptocurrency is also declared illegal in South Africa, and the reason is simple - SARS. People who use cryptocurrency are getting returns on investments that are going completely untaxed, and it will only be a matter of time that SARS puts an end to this (or tries).