Regulatory advances in 2025 have laid the foundation for the growth of cryptocurrencies, with their use in domestic payments and cross-border remittances expected to surge this year.
“Last year marked a turning point for crypto in [South Africa and the rest of] Africa, shifting from retail‑led speculation and towards institutional adoption, broader mainstream awareness and practical use cases,” said Hannes Wessels, South Africa GM at Binance.
“Globally, institutions increasingly hold long-term positions in bitcoin and other digital assets, while in South Africa adoption has grown steadily through education and real-world applications,” he said.
There are many examples of market activity pointing to increasing cryptocurrency adoption in 2025. Internationally, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, tokenised US bonds on the ethereum blockchain. In September, Nasdaq proposed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, America’s financial regulator, to allow tokenised stocks to be traded on its exchange.
Locally, a partnership between Scan to Pay and MoneyBadger, announced in October, enabled 650 000 merchants across the country to accept crypto payments at checkout, allowing crypto users to spend with digital assets like they do with fiat money. In November, Discovery Bank announced a partnership with Luno, allowing the bank’s customers to trade crypto directly through its online banking channels.
Another South African crypto innovation of 2025 was hardware specialist Cardware Wallet’s introduction of the Spendl debit card, allowing users to spend cryptocurrency in the same way they would spend rands.
Much of the innovation and increased adoption of cryptocurrencies is attributable to improvements in the regulatory landscape, which has helped bolster confidence among institutional investors and consumers. The passing in the US of the Genius Act, aimed at regulating and fostering the growth of stablecoins, has had a cascading affect across the world. South Africa is yet to enact stablecoin-specific legislation, but other crypto-related changes are coming in 2026.
The South African Revenue Service will on 1 March introduce a new crypto asset reporting framework aimed at eliminating blind spots in cryptocurrency flows in the financial system. Wessels said the framework is a step towards greater transparency, not just in South Africa, but on the rest of the African continent, too.
“Regulatory clarity will be a major driver of growth across the continent. As frameworks move from consultation to implementation, more capital and institutional activity will flow into regulated exchanges. Binance in Africa has already seen rising engagement from institutional users and local traders, and this is expected to accelerate in 2026,” said Wessels.
Cryptocurrencies – and the underlying blockchain technology – show real promise in the payments space, where transactions can be settled in seconds and at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional payment rails. These benefits are even more pronounced when used for cross-border payments.
Christo de Wit, country manager for South Africa at Luno, said stablecoins in particular are playing a strategic role in the development of alternative financial infrastructure. For businesses, stablecoins offer a way to manage currency risk without maintaining foreign bank accounts or incurring high forex costs, he said.
“Transaction fees are significantly lower than traditional forex services, and they don’t rely on traditional banking infrastructure. Crypto can provide an alternative to the US dollar dominance in global trade, especially if economic groupings such as Brics make a concerted effort to formalise and adopt its use for trade and capital flows. However, with the passage of the Genius Act, the US is determined to continue its ongoing dollarisation of global trade, albeit in a dollar-backed stablecoin format,” said De Wit.
Although crypto assets and their underlying infrastructure provide banks and fintechs with many opportunities for innovation, some assets are viewed as riskier than others. According to a Standard Bank spokesman, while the bank recognises more widespread acceptance of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether, continued uncertainty and volatility, although improving, means they are not an immediate focus for payment use cases.
“Our focus will be on digital assets that are stable, well-collateralised and supported by strong control environments, specifically stablecoins and tokenised deposits,” said the spokesman. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media
