Cryptocurrencies have become increasingly popular in South Africa, with hundreds of billions of rands worth of digital tokens such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP, being traded in recent years. News24 spoke to multiple market leading crypto asset providers to gain an understanding of the scale of their operations and the growth of cryptocurrency adoption in South Africa.
For instance, Christo de Wit, Luno’s country manager for South Africa, revealed that close to 70% of the digital currency traded on Luno has been in South Africa, and confirmed that R655 billion has been traded in total on Luno over its 10-year history. Samantha Fuller, the head of communications in the Middle East and Africa at Binance, an international crypto provider, said that active users on Binance increased by 51.1% in May 2023 compared to the year before, with a 58% year-on-year increase in new registrations.
Don Kruger, the head of product for crypto at EasyEquities, added that their EC10 coin, which offers investors a basket of 10 of the biggest cryptocurrencies by market cap, has a total of R500 million of assets under management. Sean Sanders, the CEO of Revix, revealed that the company has received over R4 billion in deposits.
The key drivers of purchasing and trading behaviour differed based on the platform. Price volatility is the strongest single driver of trading volume for Luno, while Revix and EasyEquities reported that their crypto clients seem to be taking a longer-term investment approach.
It is clear that crypto is becoming commonplace in the diversified investment portfolios of the average South African. For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
