R63 billion was sent from Bitcoin wallets to outside accounts, to pay or settle debt.
This emerged from a November report on the financial sector, published by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) on Tuesday afternoon.
Speaking at a media briefing, Nicola Brink, Head of Financial Stability at the SARB, said the bank is working closely with National Treasury, to determine a framework to guide this and other techno reliant activities.
Brink said financial markets have demonstrated resilience amid heightened geopolitical and trade uncertainties, since June this year.
Equity markets rebounded after the United States (US) announced new tariffs in April 2025, driven by strong growth in technology- and artificial intelligence (AI)-focused equities.
Despite this, gold prices surged to historic highs, reflecting ongoing investor risk aversion and diversification away from other traditional safe haven assets.
Concerns still persist regarding rising global government debt, which is projected to reach nearly 100% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.
South Africa’s equity market also recovered after the April 2025 turmoil, with the JSE Limited (JSE) All-Share Index (Alsi) reaching an all-time high in October 2025.
Government bond yields declined to six-year lows amid an improved fiscal outlook, supported by lower inflation, removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylist, the lower inflation target announced in the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS), the credit rating upgrade by Standard and Poor’s (S&P) Global Ratings, and expectations of policy rate cuts.
Overall, the banking sector profitability, measured by return on equity, remained above its 10-year average.
Lesetja Kganyago, Governor of the SARB said there is a team established to work at ensuring the country remains off the grey list, ahead of next year’s mutual evaluation.
They are ensuring full compliance of the OECD code for the movement of capital in and out of the country and tightening controls raised by the TATF report.
The SARB identifies key threats to financial stability across three risk categories, which are structural- cyclical financial risks, structural and perpetual risks as well as operational and event risks.