The South African CASP Licence, Without the Acronym Trap

Read this first

SA-CASP is not MiCA-CASP - same acronym, different planet

In South Africa, CASP means a crypto asset service provider licensed as a financial services provider under the FAIS Act and supervised by the FSCA. In the EU, CASP means a crypto-asset service provider authorised under MiCA. The two regimes share nothing but the letters: a South African CASP licence confers no EU or EEA rights, and a MiCA authorisation confers no right to serve South African clients - nothing passports in either direction. Commercial pages even retitle the licence a "VASP registration" - a category that does not exist here. The EU counterpart is covered in the MiCA framework guide; the full disambiguation is in SA-CASP vs MiCA-CASP. Everything below is South African law only.

The declaration

GN 1350 of 2022 - how crypto became a financial product

The declaration reaches advice on crypto assets, intermediary services - executing and arranging client transactions, holding as intermediary - and discretionary investment management. It leaves out miners, node operators and NFT-only providers, and crypto derivatives sit outside it, FAIS-regulated before it existed. The South African Reserve Bank does not recognise crypto assets as currency, and an FSCA licence does not make them legal tender.

The transition window still shapes the market: under FAIS Notice 90 of 2022, an existing crypto business could keep operating unlicensed only if it applied between 1 June and 30 November 2023, and only until the FSCA decided that application. Whoever missed the window operates unlawfully - the subject of the FSCA's 81 investigations. Foreign platforms serving South African residents are not exempt: an April 2025 joint FIC and FSCA advisory requires both the FSCA licence and FIC registration.

Licence anatomy

Category I, Category II - and the dual structure

The licence is an ordinary FSP authorisation with crypto assets as an approved product, so the FAIS categories do the work. Category I covers advice and non-discretionary intermediary services: advising clients and executing or arranging their transactions. Category II is the discretionary category: rendering intermediary services under a client mandate, with the FSP deciding what to buy and sell. One persistent search-result error dies here: Category II is not "investment advice" - advice sits in Category I; Category II is discretionary intermediary services.

A dual Category I and II licence puts the full stack - advice, execution and discretionary management - in one entity; under Board Notice 194 section 50 a multi-category FSP complies with the most onerous financial-soundness requirements applicable, here Category II's. Both structures exist in SKY7's live inventory: an FSCA Category II discretionary FSP and a dual Category I and II crypto-approved FSP.

The scoreboard

533 applications, 310 licences - the FSCA's own funnel

As at 31 March 2026, per the FSCA's 15 April 2026 update: 533 CASP applications processed, 310 approved, 17 declined, 124 withdrawn, and 81 investigations into unlicensed operators, 51 still open. The trajectory matters as much as the totals - 248 approvals by December 2024, 300 by December 2025, 310 by March 2026. Approvals have slowed to a trickle.

The FSCA publishes its own decline reasons: operational ability - no clear, crypto-specific business model - and competence - no demonstrable crypto knowledge and practical experience. The 124 withdrawals mostly tell the same story from the other side: files that died on information requests. What the funnel means for the buy-versus-apply decision is worked through in the scoreboard analysis. These figures are a dated snapshot - verify against the FSCA's next release before relying on them.

The exam cliff

30 June 2025 - the day the exam exemption died

The FSCA exempted licensed CASPs and their key individuals from the regulatory examinations under FAIS Notice 25 of 2023, then extended the relief once - to 30 June 2025, stating there would be no further extensions. That date has passed. A CASP key individual now needs RE1 in hand, plus RE3 for Category II, and a licensee whose key individuals lack them no longer meets fit-and-proper - the exact trigger for suspension or withdrawal under section 9 of the FAIS Act. For buyers the point is sharper: incoming key individuals from abroad must pass the South African exams before approval - no foreign-equivalence shortcut exists.

Capital honesty

No minimum capital - true and misleading at once

There is no fixed minimum share capital in rand for a Category I or Category II FSP. Commercial pages either invent one or trumpet its absence; both miss the real rule. Board Notice 194 Table B imposes maintained financial soundness: assets exceeding liabilities - with goodwill, intangibles and related-party loans stripped out - current assets exceeding current liabilities, and liquid assets of at least 8/52 of annual expenditure for Category II. That is roughly eight weeks of operating costs, held liquid continuously. Section 49 adds an early-warning regime: buffers below 110% mean immediate notification, and section 49(4) blocks distributions without prior FSCA approval while the trigger stands.

Fees and timelines

R16,313, 60 working days - and what those numbers are not

The Category II application fee is R16,313 under FSCA General Notice 1 of 2024, the current Table of Fees; other categories' amounts sit in the same schedule - we name the schedule rather than circulate figures. The real cost is professional work, the compliance stack and the 8/52 liquidity, not the application fee. SKY7 fees are quoted on request.

On timing, no statutory deadline exists. The FSCA's Service Level Commitments of 26 March 2024 - published, expressly non-binding commitments the regulator may vary - target 60 working days for a new Category I or II authorisation, counted only on a complete, error-free application with the fee paid. The same document carries the trap behind the 124 withdrawals: miss an information request by 30 calendar days and the application is treated as withdrawn, fee forfeited. The FSCA's own scoreboard is the reality check - weak files run far past the commitment.

The FIC stack

The AML layer runs on its own clock

FSCA licensing is only half the perimeter. CASPs became accountable institutions under item 22 of Schedule 1 to the FIC Act on 19 December 2022 - before FSCA licensing even opened - and a licensed FSP registers under item 12 as well. That brings a Risk Management and Compliance Programme under section 42; the travel rule under FIC Directive 9, in force since 30 April 2025 - it applies to any crypto transfer above zero value, allows a reduced information set only below R5,000, and requires the information to travel before or simultaneously with the transfer; and risk and compliance returns under FIC Directive 11 of 2026, whose current cycle covers 1 July 2023 to 31 March 2026. Section 45C administrative sanctions back all of it, and inspections are running - 30 in FY2025/26, 35 planned for FY2026/27.

The acquisition rail

What the FSCA approves in a sale - and what it only notes

South Africa inverts the UK and EU pattern: there is no regulator approval of the share sale itself. The FSR Act's significant-owner regime in section 158 is confined to banks, insurers, market infrastructures and CIS managers - FAIS FSPs are not on the list. That is not a loophole - the gates sit on people. A new or replacement key individual may not take part in the conduct, management or oversight of the business until the FSCA has approved them on application under FAIS section 8(4)(b), with the exams and a year of relevant oversight experience already in hand. Compliance officer and auditor changes need approval too (sections 17 and 19); the ownership change itself is a licence variation on a 30-working-day service commitment; and the FSCA may re-set licence conditions when it evaluates a new key individual. Nobody can promise key individual approval - the FSCA decides.

Adding crypto assets to an existing FSP licence is the other route - a licence-category variation on a 90-working-day service commitment, still demanding the crypto competence the FSCA declines applicants for. The people-gate mechanics are in the key individual guide; the numbers behind buying versus applying are in the scoreboard analysis. The live entities this rail leads to are below.

Moving target

What is changing, as of July 2026

Draft PCC 123 - the FIC's travel-rule guidance for CASPs - went to consultation in March 2026 and will shape Directive 9 compliance when finalised. The Directive 11 reporting cycle is live, platform open for the period to 31 March 2026. The FSCA's next CASP statistics release, on its roughly semi-annual cadence, will move every number quoted above. Behind all of it sits the COFI Bill - introduction in the National Assembly gazetted 17 April 2026 - set to absorb FAIS licensing into an activity-based conduct regime over the medium term. Separately, the treatment of crypto assets under the Exchange Control Regulations is the subject of conflicting High Court judgments and a Treasury consultation; that litigation is unsettled and this page takes no position on it. Statements here are made as of July 2026: verify against the current instruments on fsca.co.za, fic.gov.za and the Government Gazette before committing capital.