Cryptocurrency trading is banned in the country.
Zimbabwe's major exchange, Golix, was shut by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in May, but got a reprieve from the High Court, which lifted the ban on its operations. However, local banks are prohibited from opening accounts for companies or individuals trading in virtual currencies, a development that has choked cryptocurrency activity in the country.
"I think the new Cabinet gives the country an opportunity to explore the benefits of technology, especially financial technology in the context of financial services and digital assets," said Prosper Mwedzi, founder and promoter of virtual discount token VicFalls Coin.
"Cryptocurrencies are definitely something which we hope will be given some space, not as a replacement to fiat, but as an alternative payment system alongside fiat. The option to issue a digital currency for Zimbabwe should be kept open as this can bring benefits such as in cross border payments and solve the issue of USD shortages," he told The Financial Gazette.
The newly appointed Treasury boss recently expressed his support for a liberal environment for cryptocurrencies.
"I think the attitude for Zimbabwe should be to invest in understanding these innovations and often central banks are too slow in investing in these technologies," Ncube said.
"…there are other countries which are moving faster. If you look at the Swiss central bank and other central banks, they are investing in and understanding Bitcoin. You can pay for travel using Bitcoin in Switzerland.
"So if these countries can see value in this and where it's headed, we should also pay attention. We have innovative youngsters so the idea shouldn't be to stop it and say don't do this, its risky, its dangerous, rather the regulators should invest in catching up with them and find ways to understand it, then you regulate it because you now understand it," the Finance minister added.
Before the central bank banned cryptocurrency-exchanges, trading in virtual currencies had become popular in Zimbabwe, with Golix claiming to have had 40 000 active at some point.
The users of the exchanges' who had fiat balances at the time of the directive by the reserve bank have not been able to make withdrawals since May.
Golix has been offering its clients settlements of their frozen funds in cryptocurrencies as it waits for the outcome of its court appeal.
Ncube said he sits on a board which supports central banks around the globe and he has encouraged it to train central bankers on cryptocurrencies.
"Encourage other ways to do mobile payments or whether its using block-chain in terms of managing remittances across borders because block-chain is nothing other than a trust machine, it allows you to track the authenticity of transactions … so investing in these technologies, understanding them from a regulator point of view, is a good thing," he said.
