In this article, we’ll go through 20 of the best crypto exchanges in South Africa. Let us begin.
1. Binance
The largest exchange in the world by trading volume, Binance is also the biggest exchange in South Africa. Founded in 2017, it has risen to be one of the most successful crypto exchanges in the world. In South Africa, Binance is also the largest exchange by volume. It is able to accept deposits in ZAR via bank transfer or credit/debit card payments. Additionally, it hosts a p2p marketplace where people can trade Bitcoin, Ether, USDT, and BUSD.
2. VALR
VALR is a local exchange founded in 2018. As such, it has strong support for ZAR deposits via the banking system of South Africa. On its platform, it has over 50 cryptocurrencies available, but the pair BTC/ZAR dominates 76% of all trades made there. It is a centralized exchange that works using the order book model. It is mainly used by professional traders and some institutions.
3. UniSwap
Our first decentralized exchange on the list, UniSwap, remains the biggest DEX on the planet and in South Africa. Since the platform does not require KYC/AML, many users flock to it, trying to bypass those regulations. It can only be used to trade tokens hosted on the Ethereum network, and it does not support cash deposits. But once the user has bought crypto, it becomes one of the fastest platforms to use. Lately, though, the gas fees on Ethereum have made it too expensive to use for small amounts of money.
4. Luno Exchange
Luno is one of the biggest exchanges in the world. It was founded in 2013 in the United Kingdom, but it has offices in South Africa and other countries worldwide. It supports ZAR bank transfers and other payment methods using the local money for the more than 60 trading pairs available on the exchange. It is a platform mainly geared towards the professional trading sector. As the interface is not very friendly for those unfamiliar with the looks of exchanges.
5. Crypto.com
Crypto.com is a crypto exchange founded in 2016 located in Hong Kong. It offers many crypto products such as a credit card that has rewards in Bitcoin, plus they have their own token that can be used on their platforms and in others. It is a great getaway for the Asian market, and many traders n South Africa use it in this way.
6. Remitano
Remitano is our first pure peer-to-peer crypto exchange. It was founded in 2016 by Babylon Solutions, and it operates in over 50 countries. It has a money wallet for ZAR that allows South Africans to quickly go from Fiat currencies to crypto in their platform. Beyond p2p trading, the platform offers investing in crypto coins and instant swaps between pairs of assets.
7. Cex.io
Cex.io is a crypto exchange from the United Kingdom founded in 2013. It is a big player in the European markets and countries of the Commonwealth. In addition to trading services, it also provides cloud mining for those looking to mine cryptocurrencies without having to buy the hardware. The exchange has over half a million users, and it is making inroads into South Africa. It is one of the best gateways into the crypto market of England and its associated institutions.
8. Bitfinex
Bitfinex was founded in 2012 and has its headquarters in Honk Kong. It is one of the largest exchanges in the world and enters the South African market in 2014. The platform has over 50 cryptocurrencies ready to trade and adds more regularly. It supports bank wire transfers in ZAR, but the bank that handles these transactions is outside South Africa, making it expensive. But it has a huge presence in Asia, so traders looking at that market need to use Bitfinex.
9. PancakeSwap
A relatively new addition to the South African market, PacakeSwap is a DEX hosted on Binance Smart Chain. It has become very popular in recent months due to the high gas fees on Ethereum. PancakeSwap is considerably cheaper to use since it is on BSC, plus its confirmation times are faster. It doesn’t have as many assets as UniSwap, but it keeps growing all the same.
10. Coinmama
Coinmama has been around since 2013, when it was founded in Slovakia. It supports bank transfers and credit/debit card transactions from over 188 countries. In South Africa is mostly used to enter the crypto market as it does not offer the possibility to trade with ZAR directly. But due to its longevity and ease of use, many considered as a good Fiat money ramp into cryptocurrencies.
11. Waves Exchange
Waves Exchange was founded in 2019, and it’s the official exchange of the Waves Blockchain. It is a hybrid DEX and traditional exchange, and it works using the Waves network but also has centralized services. It has the lowest trading fees from any on the list, with each transaction going for as little as 40 cents of a US dollar. The downside is that the Waves Network is not very popular in Africa, so the exchange’s assets will not be familiar to most in the market. But the lower fees have made many eager to try out the product.
12. Kraken
The oldest crypto exchange on our list, Kraken, has been around since 2011. For this reason, Kraken is one of the most connected exchanges on the planet. It has agreements with many banks, financial institutions, crypto projects, and hardware wallet makers. The downside is that KYC verification on the platform takes three days on average, making it one of the slowest on our list. Also, it mainly works with wire transfers for those living outside the U.S., and each can take up to five business days to process.
But many put up with all of the slowness because Kraken has one of the best securities in the market. It has never suffered a high-profile hack, unlike other exchanges.
13. Local Bitcoins
The oldest crypto p2p exchange, Local Bitcoins, started in 2012 in Finland. The exchange has been operating successfully in more than 190 countries, and it also has a sizable market share in South Africa. Many that use the p2p model are familiar with Local Bitcoins, and in the country, it has the second biggest market share behind the Binance p2p market. The main drawback of the exchange is that it supports very few assets, and sometimes finding a trading partner can take a long time. Nevertheless, it remains a popular option for those looking to trade outside the traditional exchanges.
14. Paxful
Paxful is another very popular p2p crypto exchange. Founded in 2015 and from the United States, the platform has grown to service more than 150 countries. It is the most popular p2p exchange in North America, and it has been expanding to other regions in recent years. It has been growing in Africa, but processing fees and a long verification time have prevented it from taking too much market share. Despite all that, it remains a popular choice for those that want to use the p2p model.
15. Okex
Started in 2014, Okex is a crypto exchange from Belize. In recent years it has been gaining a lot of market traction in Africa due to the popularity of its OKT token. The token was launched using the Cosmos Network, which has attracted attention from other projects looking to use that blockchain. The token lowers fees when using the exchange, and in the future, other functionalities will be built on top of it. That is why many are looking to use Okex.
16. Huobi
Huobi is a crypto exchange from China that started in 2013. It is one of the largest exchanges in the world, and it is very dominant in the Asian markets. It offers many institutional services for those large buyers looking to purchase crypto in bulk. Also, it has developed many types of wallets, both hot and cold, for the storage of crypto. In South Africa, Huobi is the main channel between the Chinese crypto market and the African one.
17. Coinbase
Founded in 2012 in the United States, Coinbase is the second oldest exchange on our list. It is the most used exchange in the United States and a big player in the world crypto market. Many projects see it as a mark of quality when they are first listed on Coinbase. As such, it has enormous market power in the crypto economy. In South Africa, the exchange is used by those that trade heavily with the markets of North America. It supports bank transfers from the country but not trading directly using ZAR.
18. Bitpanda
Bitpanda started in 2014 with offices in Austria; the exchange is one of the biggest in continental Europe. It offers both web crypto wallets and cold storage ones that are fully integrated with the platform. Both work with the 50+ crypto assets the exchange has to trade. Additionally, the platform has one of the fastest verification times, with an average time of 18 hours to approve a new user with a valid ID.
19. Quick Swap
Our youngest entry on the list, QuickSwap, is less than a year old. It is a DEX launched on the Matic sidechain, which is part of Ethereum. Since it works on a sidechain, the platform is very fast and many times cheaper than a DEX on the main Ethereum network. Because of these features, it has grown very fast, as the UI is the same as in UniSwap. It proves that fully functioning DEXs can be built on sidechains and how the technology can scale Ethereum.
20. AnySwap
AnySwap is a DEX on BSC that is also of very recent creation. The main feature of it is its ability to create bridges between different blockchains to the platform. For example, it can transfer tokens from Etherum into BSC by creating a temporal link between the two networks. For this reason, many advanced blockchain users are using the exchange to escape high gas fees in Ethereum and still buying tokens from that network.
Conclusion
The world has changed dramatically. Now, in addition to traditional exchanges, we have p2p exchanges, decentralized exchanges, and hybrids. The choices are many for those looking to enter crypto trading. For a similar list but focused on Nigeria, read 20 Best BTC Exchange to Buy Bitcoin in Nigeria (2021 Review). The time is now to begin your crypto journey.
