Lex Libertas launches ‘Stop Crypto Control’ campaign against sweeping new state powers

PRETORIA – Lex Libertas has launched the Stop Crypto Control campaign after submitting a detailed legal opinion to the National Treasury highlighting serious constitutional concerns relating to the Draft Capital Flow Management Regulations, 2026.

The think tank and advocacy group has identified several concerns with the proposed regulations, including:

1. • Excessive executive discretion: The regulations would grant the Minister of Finance and National Treasury very broad and poorly defined powers to make decisions without sufficient parliamentary oversight.
2. • Legal uncertainty: The regulations rely heavily on undisclosed thresholds and future determinations that have not been published, making it impossible for citizens and businesses to know the rules in advance.
3. • Interference with property rights: The regulations include provisions that could compel individuals to sell lawfully acquired crypto assets in certain circumstances.
4. • Threat to self-custody: The regulations fail to distinguish adequately between crypto assets held on exchanges and those held privately in self-custody wallets.
5. • Lack of proportionality: The regulations go far beyond ordinary capital-flow management or anti-money-laundering measures and move into direct control over private property.
6. • Risk of mission creep: The regulations would create infrastructure that could be used to expand unjustifiable state control over financial assets in future.

Dr Ernst Roets, executive director of Lex Libertas, said lawfully acquired crypto assets constitute private property and should enjoy the same basic protection as other forms of property.

‘The state should not have the power to arbitrarily restrict, control or compel the sale of citizens’ assets. This is not reasonable regulation. It is a dangerous expansion of state power over private property and personal financial decisions,’ Roets said.

Lex Libertas has submitted formal comments on the proposed regulations, supported by a detailed legal opinion, and has called on National Treasury to withdraw the regulations in their current form.

The organisation has also opened a public petition and urges everyone concerned about property rights, financial freedom and growing state control to add their voices.

• The letter to the National Treasury and the Legal Opinion are attached to this statement.
• The Stop Crypto Control campaign can be supported here: https://2eupi6.share-eu1.hsforms.com/2qa9peSvOR0CMKvWaFkDHLQ

The campaign forms part of Lex Libertas’ broader work to defend basic freedoms, property rights and decentralisation against the continued expansion of centralised government control.

Lex Libertas is a think tank and advocacy group working towards a viable political dispensation in South Africa, based on the principles of freedom, decentralisation and self-governance.

• To join the Lex Libertas media mailing list, contact: media@lexlibertas.org.za.