When it comes to buying, selling and trading cryptocurrency – an easy to use, secure and good-looking exchange goes long way. South Africa does not have that many exchanges compared to other countries, however our exchanges do meet all the above criteria.
Warning! Investing in digital assets is highly risky and speculative. A qualified professional should always be consulted before making any financial decisions. Buying and trading cryptocurrencies should be considered a high-risk activity. Please do your own diligence before making any investment decisions. The Frontline is not accountable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss incurred, alleged or otherwise, in connection to the use or reliance of any content you read on the site.
Here are our picks for the best cryptocurrency exchanges in South Africa in 2023:
Luno
Start investing from just R10 with Luno.com, the leading cryptocurrency exchange in South Africa. Luno is available for your smartphone and via web. Luno also complies with South African anti money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) regulations.
Luno was founded in 2013 and has offices worldwide. Currently you can buy or sell Bitcoin, Etheruem, Ripple, Link, Uni, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and USD coin. New cryptocurrencies are added regularly.
Luno has an instant buy and sell feature or for the more advanced user an intuitive and easy to use exchange with all the features you need to trade cryptocurrency.
Fees are minimal and withdrawals and deposits are fast. With regards to the user experience, the exchange is easy to navigate and looks good, and the mobile app is well designed making your interaction with the world of crypto as simple as clicking a few buttons.
Standout features include easily setting price alerts as well as news and learning resources straight from within the app, giving you an everything app for crypto.
Read our full Luno review.
VALR
VALR is another leading cryptocurrency exchange in South Africa, currently boasting the country’s largest selection of tradable digital assets. At the time of writing, VALR offers offers exposure to over 60 cryptocurrency assets.
With VALR you have access to a simple buy and sell interface, a full on exchange, and the ability to swap your coins.
VALR’s standout feature is the ability to schedule recurring ETF payments from your bank and have VALR automatically buy your desired crypto and credit it to your account. This is an awesome feature for the passive investor.
VALR also has some of the highest security standards and measures to ensure your assets are protected making them an ideal choice for anyone concerned with the safety of their assets or the personal information.
Read our full VALR review.
Binance
In August 2022, Binance, the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, announced that they have added a South African fiat gateway allowing South Africans to easily deposit and withdraw funds as well access Binances’s powerful trading platform.
In order to make Rand deposits and withdrawals, all users need to complete now your customer (KYC).
Binance has a complete suite of cryptocurrency products and services which include a simple buy and sell interface, a beginner and advanced cryptocurrency exchange, margin trading, derivatives, finance, NFTs, institutional products and various ways to earn money such as through mining pools, staking cryptocurrency, lending your crypto, rewards or several interest-earning options.
Binance has over 350 cryptocurrencies listed and over 120 million registered users, with a base transaction fee of <0.10% making it one of the best exchanges to trade with.
Binance’s standout feature is their numerous products and earning options paired with a detailed and data-rich portfolio dashboard.
OVEX
OVEX offers one of South Africa’s largest selection of cryptocurrencies and provide traders with simple and advanced trading capabilities. OVEX’s solutions span an simple buy and sell, an exchange, their over the counter desk (OTC), an interest account, and a FX exchange with a minimum trade size of R200,000.
Standout features include their robust API allowing you to build an integration and trade pragmatically. OVEX is available on the web and on smartphone for Android and IOS devices.
To date, OVEX has seen $6 Billion+ traded on their platform.
Read our full OVEX review.
BitFund
BitFund is unique in this list, due to its simplified approach to cryptocurrency investing.
Deciding what to invest in can be a difficult decision, especially when you don’t have the time required for diligent research or simply want to diversify your investment portfolio and don’t care to much about the underlying assets you’re investing in, but simply want exposure to digital assets.
BitFund allows you to add a diversified investment to complement existing traditional investments by allowing you to select a pre-specified portfolio or allowing you to customise your portfolio to your preference.
BitFund’s pre-specified portfolios include the “Balance 10” which consists of the top 10 cryptocurrencies weighted by market cap, the “Equal 10″ which consists of 10 largest cryptocurrencies with an equal exposure to all of them, and the Capped 20”, which consists of the largest 20 cryptocurrencies also weighted by market capitalization.
If you choose to put together your own portfolio, simply choose the coins you’d like to add, and choose the weighting of the coin in your portfolio. BitFund will rebalance your portfolio weekly based on the chosen weightings.
And there you have it, the top crypto exchanges in South Africa. Remember you will be able to access some international exchanges too, however you may not be able to easily deposit or withdraw funds due to the lack of a Rand (ZAR) payment gateway, and if things do go south and you end up losing assets, South African authorities may not be ale to assist you due to a lack of jurisdiction.
Remember to do your own research too before making a final decision. But don’t take to long, crypto and blockchain is an exciting space with some really cool projects, some governments have even launched digital currencies based on blockchain. The sooner you get in, the better.