Bitcoin News: Zimbabwe Just Regulated Crypto, But Could a Bitcoin Treasury Save Its Economy?

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Ahmed Barakat

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Ahmed Barakat

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Aug 2025

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Ahmed Balaha is a journalist and copywriter based in Georgia with a growing focus on blockchain technology, DeFi, AI, privacy, digital assets, and fintech innovation.

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June 18, 2026

In the most recent Bitcoin News, Zimbabwe’s Financial Intelligence Unit issued a binding mandate on June 16, 2026 requiring all virtual asset service providers to register under Statutory Instrument 99 of 2026, the country’s first dedicated crypto regulatory framework, effective immediately, with criminal liability for non-compliance.

The framework formalizes what has been an eight-year grey market built largely on hyperinflation-driven demand for dollar-denominated alternatives to a succession of collapsing local currencies.

The regulatory event is straightforward. The question it reopens is not: if Zimbabwe can build the institutional scaffolding to supervise crypto, is there a coherent case for the state itself to hold a Bitcoin reserve as a monetary anchor? The answer cuts both ways, and the arithmetic deserves a serious look.

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Bitcoin News: SI 99 of 2026: What the FIU Mandate Actually Covers

The legal chain is worth anchoring precisely. The Finance Act No. 7 of 2025, passed in December 2025, amended Section 2 of Zimbabwe’s Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act to incorporate VASPs into the statutory definition of a financial institution.

Acting under those expanded powers, the Zimbabwean Minister of Finance gazetted the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime (Virtual Asset Service Providers Registration) Regulations on June 10, 2026, codified as Statutory Instrument 99, and the FIU issued its public enforcement mandate six days later.

The scope is broad and technology-neutral. Any entity exchanging cryptocurrencies for fiat, providing custody services, or facilitating crypto-related financial transactions must register. Notably, decentralization is not an exemption: if an operator can adjust smart contracts, route funds, or set transaction fees, the FIU considers them a VASP.

Registration carries a US$500 initial fee and US$400 annual renewals, requires a locally incorporated entity, director background checks, KYC implementation, transaction monitoring, and compliance with the FATF Travel Rule.

The FIU was explicit about what registration does not provide. “Registration with the FIU for AML/CFT purposes does not, in itself, constitute authorization to carry on business in Zimbabwe,” the public notice stated.

VASPs still need separate operational approvals from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe or the Securities and Exchange Commission of Zimbabwe, depending on their business model. This two-layer structure – crypto regulation for AML monitoring on one track, commercial licensing on another, is standard FATF architecture, and Zimbabwe is explicitly aligning itself with those international standards.

The historical context makes the policy shift sharper. In 2018, the RBZ issued Circular No. 2/2018 ordering all banks to cease servicing crypto exchanges and exit existing relationships within 60 days.

Local exchange Golix challenged the ban in court and obtained a provisional High Court order lifting it specifically against Golix, but broader regulatory uncertainty persisted for years.

SI 99 is effectively the formal end of that ambiguity, a supervised integration model replacing blanket exclusion, driven by the recognition that hyperinflation and chronic currency instability had already pushed citizens into crypto regardless of official policy.

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