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Cape Crypto Market Abuse Policy

Last updated: 4 June 2026

Cape Crypto (Pty) Ltd ("Cape Crypto", "we", "us", "our") is a company incorporated in the Republic of South Africa, an authorised Financial Services Provider, and a registered Crypto Asset Service Provider with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority ("FSCA"). We are committed to fair, orderly, and transparent markets and to the principles of Treating Customers Fairly ("TCF").

This Policy sets out the conduct that is prohibited on the Cape Crypto Platform, your responsibilities as a user, how we monitor for market abuse, and the steps we take when we detect it. It supplements the Cape Crypto Terms of Use and applies to all use of the Platform, including the order-book Exchange, Instant Buy and Instant Sell, and any Promotion or Trading Competition.

1. Terms we use in this Policy

  • Platform — the Cape Crypto website, app, Exchange (order book), and Instant Buy / Instant Sell services.
  • Market abuse — market manipulation, insider dealing, the unlawful disclosure or misuse of inside information, and any related conduct described in this Policy.
  • Inside information — specific, non-public information that, if made public, would be likely to have a material effect on the price of a crypto asset.
  • Related person — a person acting in concert with, controlled by, or coordinating with another person, whether or not they are formally connected.

2. Your responsibilities

When you use the Platform you must trade in good faith and for genuine economic purposes. You must not engage in, attempt, or assist any conduct described in this Policy, whether acting alone, through multiple accounts, or together with others. You are responsible for all activity on your account.

3. Market manipulation

You must not engage in conduct that creates, or is likely to create, a false or misleading impression of the supply, demand, or price of a crypto asset, or that secures the price at an artificial level. Prohibited conduct includes, but is not limited to:

  • Wash trading and intentional self-matching — deliberately placing orders on both sides of the same trade, whether by the same person or a related person, with the aim of executing against yourself so that there is no genuine change in beneficial ownership, in order to create a false impression of activity, volume, or price.
  • Spoofing and layering — placing orders without a genuine intention to execute them, in order to mislead other participants about supply or demand.
  • Pump-and-dump and ramping — coordinated buying or promotion to inflate a price, followed by selling into the demand created.
  • Marking and benchmark interference — trading to set or move a price at a particular time, such as at the close of a Promotion or Competition cycle.
  • Abnormal order-placement patterns inconsistent with bona fide market activity.

Genuine trading is never market abuse. Placing a real order that later executes against another order you placed independently — for example a resting limit order that fills days later when the market moves to your price — is legitimate and is not caught by this Policy. What is prohibited is trading with yourself by design, in order to inflate volume or move a price.

4. Insider dealing and misuse of information

If you have inside information you must not deal, or attempt to deal, in the affected crypto asset; encourage or discourage another person from dealing; or disclose that information to anyone except in the proper course of your duties. This applies regardless of how the information came to you.

5. Collusion, pooling, and multiple accounts

You must not coordinate trading with other participants (collusion or pooling), nor use multiple accounts controlled by the same natural person, to manipulate a market, gain an unfair advantage, or artificially inflate volume in any Promotion or Trading Competition.

6. Platform and systems abuse

You must not exploit bugs, faults, latency, or unintended behaviour of the Platform, nor use any automated means to gain an unfair advantage, place disorderly volumes of orders, or disrupt the orderly functioning of the market. Any other conduct prohibited by the Financial Markets Act, 2012 (Act 19 of 2012) in so far as it applies, or by any market-conduct standard published by the FSCA, is likewise prohibited.

7. Monitoring and surveillance

We monitor activity on the Platform for the conduct described in this Policy. We may review orders, trades, account relationships, and patterns of activity, and we may request information from you to satisfy ourselves that your trading is legitimate. Where required, we cooperate with the FSCA and other competent authorities.

8. Consequences of market abuse

Where we reasonably believe that market abuse has occurred or been attempted, we may take any one or more of the following steps, without prior notice and without limiting our other rights under the Terms of Use:

  • disregard or reverse the affected orders or trades;
  • disqualify you from, and forfeit your rewards in, any Promotion or Trading Competition, and clawback or reverse rewards already paid;
  • restrict, suspend, or close your account;
  • withhold or reverse funds connected to the conduct, subject to applicable law; and
  • report the matter to the FSCA, the Financial Intelligence Centre, the South African Police Service, or any other competent authority.

9. Reporting suspected market abuse

If you suspect that market abuse is taking place on the Platform, please tell us by submitting a support request. You may report in confidence, and we will not penalise you for a report made in good faith.

This Policy gives effect to our obligations under, among others, the Financial Markets Act, 2012 (Act 19 of 2012) in so far as it applies, the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002, the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, 2001, and market-conduct standards and guidance published by the FSCA. Nothing in this Policy limits any right or remedy available to Cape Crypto or to any authority at law.

11. Contact us

For questions about this Policy, or to report suspected market abuse, contact the Compliance Officer, Cape Crypto (Pty) Ltd, by submitting a support request.