Ghana’s parliament has passed the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act (VASP Act), ending a years-long regulatory standoff and formally legalising cryptocurrency trading. The legislation, confirmed by Bank of Ghana Governor Johnson Asiama on Monday, represents a pivot to bring a rampant "shadow" market under state supervision.
Licensing an entrenched market
The new framework grants the Bank of Ghana (BoG) exclusive authority to license and supervise virtual asset service providers. Governor Asiama noted that the goal is to bring existing activity into "accountable and well-governed boundaries," effectively acknowledging that previous warnings against digital assets failed to deter users. Under the new law, individuals will no longer face arrest for trading, but firms must now meet strict reporting and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards.
The move is a direct response to retail adoption that has outpaced formal banking growth. Central bank estimates suggest 3mn Ghanaians, roughly 17% of the adult population, already engage with digital assets. These users generated an estimated $3bn in transaction volume in the year ending June 2024, driven primarily by everyday payments and remittances rather than institutional speculation.
Regional rivalry and gold-backed hedges
By formalizing crypto oversight, Ghana is attempting to maintain pace with regional leaders like Nigeria, where transaction volumes reached $59bn (£46bn) over the same period. Total onchain activity across sub-Saharan Africa topped $200bn ($200bn) in 2025, making the region a global hub for retail-driven digital finance.
The BoG’s strategy involves more than just oversight; it aims at improving monetary stability. The central bank plans to explore asset-backed digital settlement instruments, including gold-backed stablecoins, in 2026. This initiative aims to link Ghana's traditional mineral wealth with its digital-payment infrastructure to provide a local alternative to the dollar-pegged stablecoins that currently dominate the market as a hedge against cedi volatility. For this to succeed, it would have to avoid the new licensing costs driving retail users back into the unregulated peer-to-peer (P2P) markets that the law intends to eliminate.
