Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has admitted 11 companies into its inaugural Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) regulatory sandbox, marking the first time the regulator has formally placed cryptocurrency and digital asset operators under direct supervisory oversight.
The 12-month sandbox will run in two phases. VASPs that are market-ready and compliant within the first six months may transition early to activity-based licences, while those not yet ready can continue piloting for the remaining six months.
The eleven companies admitted into the sandbox are Blu Penguin, HanyPay, Goldbod, Africoin, Hyro Exchange Gh Ltd, HSB Global, KoinKoin, Whitebits, Vaulta, Xchain, and Bsystem Ltd.
The SEC stated that the sandbox period aims to support responsible innovation while strengthening investor protection, market integrity, and compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) standards. Lessons gathered during the pilot phase will directly inform the guidelines the Commission will use to issue activity-based licences to all VASPs once the sandbox concludes.
The move comes as Ghana’s digital asset market records rapid growth. The country recorded over $10 billion in cryptocurrency transactions by November 2025, up from roughly $6 billion the year before, making it one of West Africa’s most active markets.
The sandbox framework arrived alongside updated Securities Industry Regulatory Sandbox Licensing Guidelines issued on March 9, which supersede 2020-era rules and create a more demanding compliance pathway for virtual asset firms, including requirements for local participation, physical office presence in Ghana, and daily incident reporting for cyberattacks, data breaches, and fraud events.
The sandbox is part of the SEC’s mandate under the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 (Act 1154), which was signed into law by President John Dramani Mahama in December 2025 and established the legal framework for licensing and supervising all virtual asset activity in the country. Under the law, the SEC licenses and regulates eleven specific virtual asset services, including exchanges, trading platforms, tokenisation, investment advisory, and virtual asset exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
KoinKoin Global Chief Operating Officer Mimi Kufuor welcomed the selection. “When KoinKoin entered the Ghanaian market, we made a deliberate choice to build within the rules, not around them. Being named in this first cohort by SEC Ghana is confirmation that patience and compliance pay off,” she said.
Once the sandbox period concludes and guidelines are finalised, the SEC will open the licensing and registration process to all VASPs seeking to operate legally in Ghana.
