Buying property with cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency is not legal tender in South Africa. Only notes and coin issued by the Reserve Bank have that status. Parties may agree a price by reference to a token, but the law of transfer still looks for money that a conveyancer can receive.

A conveyancer must take the purchase price through a trust account at a registered bank. A token cannot sit in that account, and it cannot be paid out as the deeds registry expects a price to be paid. Whatever the parties agreed in a wallet, the transaction that is lodged is denominated and settled in rand.

The courts have not spoken with one voice on whether exchange-control rules already catch a token as currency or as capital. That argument does not change the conveyancing point. If the price is to pass, it passes in rand, through the trust account, with the tax and exchange-control questions read on the same file.