Bitget Wallet, the everyday finance app, today announced the expansion of its crypto card in South Africa. The card lets users spend crypto directly from a self-custodial wallet at hundreds of millions of merchants worldwide, covering everyday purchases such as groceries, travel, and digital subscriptions using stablecoins converted at the point of sale. Designed for…
Mark Diuga, CEO of Bitexen South Africa. Digital asset platform Bitexen has entered South Africa’s crypto market after 18 months of setting up a local presence. According to the Türkiye-headquartered company, over the past 18 months, it has been preparing regulatory processes, operational groundwork and establishing banking relationships. The move, it says, signals a shift…
Penalties for breaching proposed crypto regulations include jail terms of five years. (Image made via GenAI) If National Treasury gets its way, South Africans who do not comply with proposed regulations dealing with crypto-currency could face jail terms of up to five years, a R1 million fine, or both. In addition, if people are found…
South Africa is rewriting its exchange-control rulebook for the first time in more than 60 years – and the country’s crypto industry fears the new regime will set it back, not move it forward. National treasury’s draft Capital Flow Management Regulations, gazetted on 17 April, would replace the apartheid-era Exchange Control Regulations of 1961 and,…
Billionaire investor Justin Sun is suing the family’s World Liberty crypto venture after spending $45m on its tokens.
SirMapy and Co DAO has acquired Nigerian crypto startup Bread Africa in an all-cash six-figure deal, as consolidation continues in the country’s digital asset sector. The acquisition follows a series of deals in the market, including Roqqu’s purchase of Flitaa in 2025. The transaction adds to a growing trend of smaller crypto startups being absorbed…
Nearly two-thirds of South African consumers have used artificial intelligence to assist with shopping-related tasks, according to new survey data from Visa that points to a rapid shift in how locals interact with digital payment technologies. The Visa Spending Shift Survey, conducted by Morning Consult among a thousand South African adults in October 2025, found…
AI shopping tools gain traction, yet most South Africans still prefer human customer service interactions. (Image created with ChatGPT) Artificial intelligence (AI), digital wallets and crypto-currency linked payments are rapidly changing how South Africans shop and transact, according to new research from Visa. The latest Spending Shift Survey was commissioned by Visa and conducted by…
SARS will use tech to catch those who don’t report crypto assets. (Image: Nicola Mawson, with Freepik and GenAI) Government is clamping down on crypto assets through two new tax regulations that expand reporting on virtual money. It is also moving to bring tokens under exchange control rules – despite a pending court case on…
Crypto assets broaden opportunities in the transaction environment but also pose significant money laundering and terrorist financing risks due to their ease of availability, use, anonymity, and decentralised nature. The Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) classified the overall inherent risks of money laundering for crypto asset service providers (CASPs) in South Africa as “high” following a…
