How Can South Africans Invest in Cryptocurrencies?

Jonathan Curry
6 min readAug 16, 2020

--

Cryptocurrencies are becoming a more desirable investment option for South Africans in 2020 as digital currencies become more regulated globally, and this means that a lot of the risk and nefarious behaviour that has been tied to the cryptocurrency market for many years is now being mitigated to a large degree.

As the desire to invest in cryptocurrencies is becoming more popular with South Africans, there is an increased demand for services that make it easy and cost effective in order to be able to do so, with the last few years seeing an explosion of the number of such services in South Africa.

Yet while there are a number of options available for investing in cryptocurrencies in the South African market, it can still be confusing and difficult for people new to the cryptocurrency sector to figure out the best and most efficient ways of investing.

This guide breaks down how South Africans can quickly and easily invest in cryptocurrencies in 2020, taking a deep look at some of the most popular platforms that are used by South Africans, and taking a deep dive into the South African cryptocurrency market as a whole.

Are there More Investors and Traders in South Africa Today?

Not only are there a growing number of South African traders and investors in the cryptocurrency market, but globally this has been seen in all regions across the world over the past few years, as cryptocurrency is penetrating further into the mainstream, and becoming an investment option that more people are aware of.

In South Africa, the number of traders and investors, and subsequently the size of the South African cryptocurrency market, has grown exponentially in the recent past, and has seen South Africa cement its place as a leader in the African continent for cryptocurrency trading and investing.

An interesting trend over this period has been that South African cryptocurrency users have become substantially more sophisticated in the way that they select where to trade then at any point in the history of cryptocurrency over the past decade, and this has been as a result of a larger volume of information being available, and many South African traders having been in the industry now for a number of years.

While there has been a large growth in the number of cryptocurrency users in South Africa over the past 3 or 4 years, it is clear that this trend will continue into the future, with the predicted total number of South African crypto traders and investors looking to explode in the coming years.

Where Do South Africans Prefer to Invest?

For much of the life of the South African cryptocurrency market it has been smaller local trading platforms that have dominated market share, and this has largely been because of a lack of competition, and because of more rudimentary services typically being available everywhere throughout the cryptocurrency market.

However in 2020, and over the last few years, there has been a move by many South African traders and investors towards international trading platforms that are not only larger and have more diverse listings typically, but also which have additional features and tools built into those platforms which are commonly not available with smaller local platforms.

It’s for these reasons and more that incumbent South African trading platforms have seen a mass exodus of users away from the kinds of services that were provided in the past, and towards an influx of newer and more advanced trading platforms which are operating internationally in all countries in the world.

While there are dozens of such international trading platforms that are vying for market share in the South African market currently, there are two which have significantly outperformed the rest, based upon the tools and features that they provide, the strong value that users are able to gain from using these platforms, and the steady flow of South African traders and investors to them.

The Best Platforms for Crypto Investing in South Africa:

PrimeXBT

PrimeXBT has outperformed any other trading platform since its launch only 3 years ago, and today has a large amount of market share in South Africa where it has been in operation for over 12 months.

PrimeXBT is the world’s leading multi-asset margin trading platform, and although it only launched 3 years ago, it has grown rapidly to today managing up to $2 billion worth of global trade every day, while listing one of the most diverse ranges of asset classes on the market.

PrimeXBT is one of the world’s leading margin trading platforms, not just for cryptocurrency traders but also for traditional asset traders with up to 100X leverage on a wide range of cryptoassets that include BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, and EOS, and with up to 500X leverage on a wide range of traditional assets that include stock indices such as the S&P500 and FTSE100, commodities such as gold and oil, and forex pairs such as EUR/USD and AUD/CAD.

PrimeXBT has attracted a large number of South African users based on it providing the lowest fees of any major cryptocurrency trading platform in the South African market, and indeed globally, with a flat rate of just 0.05% apply to all trades, irrespective of the size of the trade or of the asset class which is being traded.

Binance

Binance is another trading platform that has seen a lot of success in the South African market since its launch a few years ago.

Binance is a cryptocurrency-only trading platform that provides a wide range of different cryptocurrencies for users to invest into, and that has seen rapid growth in its exposure and number of users.

This has been largely as a result of the use of its native token, the Binance Coin, in order to incentivize social sharing and other marketing activities which have seen widespread success within South Africa, as well as globally.

While Binance does provide professional trading tools for retail and institutional investors, the platform is significantly more expensive to use than other platforms, with it being anywhere up to 5 times as expensive to use Binance than PrimeXBT, for example.

In Conclusion

Every year the South African market is growing in size and the infrastructure available to South African traders and investors is expanding, as the opportunities for generating profit increase, as do the potential rewards of trading platforms that can secure market share within the South Africa market.

While historically, local platforms have dominated the market, in the last few years we have seen a trend where South African traders and investors have transitioned en masse away from the relatively simplistic local trading platforms that have been incumbent, towards internationally-based trading platforms that provide superior services and a wider range of opportunities.

PrimeXBT and Binance are two of the international leaders in the South African market currently, and to learn more about these platforms, check out PrimeXBT and Binance.

--

--