A South African court ruled that transferring Bitcoin to overseas exchanges constitutes capital export and is subject to foreign exchange controls.

CoinFeed reported on June 3 that, according to IOL, the Gauteng Provincial High Court in South Africa ruled that Bitcoin falls under the category of "capital" and "currency" under South Africa's foreign exchange control regime, and ordered the confiscation of nearly 6 million rand in Bitcoin assets. The court ruled that a trader transferred nearly 1,680 Bitcoins through his Luno account to a wallet accessible only through overseas-registered cryptocurrency exchanges between January 2018 and March 2020. This was considered equivalent to exporting capital abroad without the Treasury's approval, violating foreign exchange control regulations. Meanwhile, the South African Treasury released a draft of its Capital Flows Management 2026 proposal for public comment last month, aiming to modernize the management of cross-border capital flows by reducing pre-approval for transactions and strengthening reporting and monitoring of high-impact, high-risk cross-border transactions.