TOWARD A UNIFIED ACCOUNTING FRAMEWORK FOR DIGITAL ASSETS: LESSONS FROM EARLY ADOPTERS IN FINTECH-DRIVEN ECONOMIES

In South Africa’s rapidly digitizing financial landscape, the fragmented treatment of digital assets-such as NFTs, stablecoins, and tokenized instruments-has created significant disparities in classification, valuation, and revenue recognition, threatening audit comparability and investor confidence. This study investigates how accounting integration challenges-namely classification inconsistency, valuation variability, and revenue recognition disputes-influence the adoption of a unified IFRS-based framework in South African fintech firms between 2020 and 2024, moderated by regulatory infrastructure and enforcement. Based exclusively on secondary data from 60 firms, the research applied descriptive and inferential statistics, including regression diagnostics (ADF, VIF, DW, Breusch-Pagan), correlation matrix, and multiple regression analysis. Findings indicate that classification consistency (β = 0.389), valuation standardization (β = 0.371), revenue recognition rules (β = 0.344), and regulatory infrastructure (β = 0.297) all significantly predicted unified framework adoption, with the model explaining 86% of the variation (R² = 0.86). The strongest correlation was between classification consistency and framework adoption (r = 0.87). These results underscore the urgent need for enforceable accounting policies, automated valuation tools, and smart contract-linked revenue models. The study recommends mandatory IFRS-aligned classification and revenue rules, stronger audit enforcement mechanisms, and the integration of blockchain APIs to ensure transparent, consistent, and globally comparable digital asset disclosures.