Zimbabwe’s government has now made it mandatory for cryptocurrency businesses to register and pay annual fees, as the Emmerson Mnangagwa-led administration seeks to bring the largely informal market under regulatory oversight.
Under regulations issued by Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, 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 African country’s central bank. While the registration will cost USD 500 on a yearly basis, operating without the fee will now be considered an offense.
The regulations are Zimbabwe’s first dedicated rules for a sector that has long operated without a legal framework, largely underground. The Mnangagwa government banned financial institutions from trading cryptocurrency in 2018, pushing traders onto peer-to-peer platforms and social media.
“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.
Zimbabwe has become a fertile ground for the crypto players. While hyperinflation in the late 2000s wiped out the African country’s citizens’ savings and pensions, repeated currency changes eroded trust in the banking system, driving demand for Bitcoin and other digital currencies as alternative stores of value and means of transfer outside the formal system.
“Remittances have fuelled adoption, with banks being the most expensive transfer channel,” stated 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.
With the latest regulatory move, Harare has joined 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 USD 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,” mentioned the Chainalysis 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index.