Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 (Act 1154)

The Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 (Act 1154), passed into law in December 2025, establishes Ghana's legal framework for the registration, licensing and supervision of virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and brings the country's crypto and digital-asset sector within formal regulation for the first time. The Act responds to the rapid uptake of crypto-assets in Ghana, the associated money-laundering, terrorism-financing and consumer-protection risks, and the requirements of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards on virtual assets. It adopts a co-regulatory model in which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) share responsibility for the sector, with the BoG focused on payment-related and monetary-stability aspects and the SEC on the licensing and conduct of virtual-asset markets, exchanges and investment-type activities. The Act requires VASPs, such as exchanges, custodians, brokers and transfer services, to register and obtain a licence before operating in Ghana, and sets fit-and-proper, governance, capital, custody, cybersecurity, disclosure and AML/CFT requirements, together with consumer-protection and market-integrity obligations. It provides for ongoing supervision, reporting and inspection, and for enforcement through penalties, directions and the suspension or revocation of licences. To operationalise the law and test proposed rules, a regulatory sandbox was launched in early 2026 admitting a cohort of crypto firms to a time-limited pilot under regulatory oversight, and detailed subsidiary regulations were being developed. Regulators have stressed that virtual assets are not legal tender and must not displace the cedi. As the statutory foundation for Ghana's digital-asset regime, Act 1154 places crypto-asset businesses within the financial regulators' perimeter and is a significant new element of the country's fintech regulation.

1. 1Ghana's first statute licensing and supervising virtual asset service providers (VASPs)
2. 2Co-regulatory model: Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of Ghana share oversight
3. 3Mandatory registration and licensing before operating; fit-and-proper, governance, capital and custody requirements
4. 4Cybersecurity, disclosure, AML/CFT, consumer-protection and market-integrity obligations
5. 5Regulatory sandbox launched in early 2026 to pilot firms and test proposed rules; subsidiary regulations under development
6. 6Virtual assets not legal tender; supervision and enforcement via penalties, directions, suspension and revocation