The Ghana Securities and Exchange Commission has admitted 11 companies to a 12-month regulatory chest under the VASP Act 2025, the country’s first crypto asset regulatory framework. The main purpose of this new regulation was announced as integrating the unregistered crypto market, which has reached an estimated $3 billion in the country, into the official financial system.
Companies on the Ballot Box and Areas Tested
The 11 companies accepted to the ballot box in Ghana operate in three main business areas. Five crypto exchanges, namely Hyro Exchange, Hanypay, HSB Global, Koinkoin and WhiteBit, are testing crypto asset transactions live under regulatory supervision. Vaulta, XChain and Bsystem Ltd companies focus on fragmented ownership of assets. Of the other three startups, Africoin tokenizes gold assets, while Blu Penguin is working on token-based payment systems; GoldBod develops custody infrastructure for gold-backed securities.
Some of these companies center on gold tokenization applications. In Ghana, which is the second largest gold producer on the African continent, the work of Africoin and GoldBod aims to transform the country’s main natural resource into a digital asset and to obtain a digital share of this resource, which has not been able to create financial value in the country by selling it abroad until now.
Regulatory Architecture and Audit Process
The VASP Law, which came into force in December 2025, introduced a dual-headed audit model in the country. While the Capital Markets Board oversees crypto trading platforms and investment-oriented digital asset services, the Central Bank of Ghana oversees payment and custody services. The structure of the fund also reflects this distinction: The 11 companies audited in the fund cover the fields of transaction and tokenization. The Central Bank included six fintech companies, including Akuna Wallet and Transika Ltd, in its ballot box program at the beginning of 2026.
Companies have the right to apply for an official operating license when they successfully complete at least six months of the pilot application and meet the risk and compliance requirements. This licensing path paves the way for crypto companies to go beyond merely conducting technological experiments and to become involved in the official sector.
$3 Billion Crypto Market and Regional Impact
The size of the unregistered crypto market in Ghana is approximately $3 billion. Behind this market, there are factors such as the effort to protect against depreciation in the Cedi, cross-border payments and the spread of fast money transfers that traditional banking cannot offer. During the launch period of Blockchain.com in Ghana, it was observed that the platform achieved a 140 percent increase in active users and an 80 percent transaction volume increase in a short time before it was officially launched; This situation is considered to indicate that the current demand in the country is high even without a regulatory framework.
Legalizing this $3 billion ecosystem creates tax revenue from previously uncontrolled economic activities and provides rights protection for users. At the same time, a compliance infrastructure is created that opens the door to international corporate collaborations of Ghanaian crypto companies.
It is reported that a total of 205 billion dollars of on-chain crypto transfers took place in Sub-Saharan Africa between July 2024 and June 2025. This fund, launched in Ghana, aims to include a certain part of this mobility in the region into the country’s financial system in a supervised manner.
