Ghana has enacted the Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill, 2025, legalizing the widespread use of cryptocurrency and bringing digital-asset trading under national law. The law immediately changes the legal status of crypto activity by moving it from informal usage into a recognized framework.
A central-bank framework replaces legal ambiguity
The law gives the Bank of Ghana authority to license, supervise, and monitor entities operating across the digital-asset ecosystem, including exchanges, wallet providers, and related service firms. The bill explicitly positions the central bank as the lead authority for authorizing and overseeing virtual-asset service providers. A Virtual Asset Service Provider is defined in the text as an entity that facilitates issuance, custody, exchange, or transfer of virtual assets, and the bill assigns the central bank the role of supervising those activities.
Governor Dr. Johnson Asiama confirmed the measure and said individuals engaging in crypto trading will not be subject to arrest, marking a clear shift in enforcement posture. Asiama’s statement is presented as a direct assurance that crypto participation will no longer be treated as an arrestable offense. In operational terms, the framework signals that oversight will be channeled through licensing and supervision rather than criminal enforcement against end users.
The legislation also frames supervision as a data and policy tool by enabling standardized information collection on transactions and capital movements. The text ties supervisory data collection to the stated goal of improving monetary-policy effectiveness. This linkage matters because it positions licensing not only as a market-control mechanism, but also as a way to convert informal flows into monitored channels.
The text describes the scale of usage as a key driver of urgency, stating that roughly 3 million citizens use digital assets for payments, remittances, and commerce, generating about $3 billion in transactions between July 2023 and June 2024. These adoption figures are used to justify why Ghana is formalizing crypto activity rather than continuing to treat it as peripheral. The figures also reinforce why authorities may prioritize supervisory visibility and standardized reporting.
The bill lists core policy goals including preventing money laundering and fraud, strengthening consumer protection, and preserving financial stability, while also aiming to foster innovation, expand financial inclusion, attract reputable fintech firms and investors, create jobs, and support economic diversification. The stated design is a dual-track approach: reduce abuse and instability while enabling legitimate digital-asset activity to scale. The next practical milestone identified in the text is the Bank of Ghana’s rollout of licensing and supervisory processes for virtual-asset service providers.
