Ghana’s New Crypto Rules Bar Banks & Mandate Sharing User Info
Ghana’s central bank has moved to formally regulate the nation’s burgeoning cryptocurrency sector, stopping short of an outright ban but imposing a stringent new regime that demands all virtual asset service providers obtain licenses and bars traditional banks from facilitating their activities.
The Bank of Ghana’s new policy, detailed in a recent document, marks a definitive end to the regulatory vacuum that has allowed over 100 crypto firms to operate with little oversight in a market boasting more than 3 million users.
While virtual assets like Bitcoin will not be recognised as legal tender, the state will no longer ignore them, opting instead for a risk-based framework designed to balance technological innovation with the urgent need to curb money laundering and protect financial stability.
The cornerstone of the new approach is mandatory licensing, compelling all Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs)—from exchanges to wallet managers—to register with either the Bank of Ghana or the Securities and Exchange Commission, depending on their function.
This move follows a mandatory registration exercise in July 2025 that forcibly pulled these entities out of the shadows, identifying over 100 operators. In a parallel directive, financial institutions are now formally prohibited from processing or facilitating virtual asset activities, a rule that aims to firewall the traditional banking sector from potential contagion but may also stifle the liquidity and integration of the digital asset market.
Central to the new oversight will be strict adherence to global Anti-Money Laundering standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), including the controversial “Travel Rule” that mandates VASPs collect and share detailed sender and recipient information for all transactions.
This requirement for traceability directly challenges the anonymity often associated with crypto transactions and will impose significant compliance burdens on local firms.
To enforce this complex new landscape, Ghana will establish a dedicated Virtual Assets Regulatory Office (VARO), creating a specialised watchdog to police the industry. The policy represents a pragmatic, if belated, acknowledgement that driving the market underground was riskier than bringing it into the regulated light; a calculated gamble to control an economic force that can no longer be ignored.
