South Africa’s VALR, Africa’s largest crypto exchange by trade volume, has been granted two key licenses by the country’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).
Established in 2018, VALR is a digital asset platform that allows customers to buy, sell, store and transfer Bitcoin and 60 other cryptocurrencies – the widest selection of any platform in Africa – seamlessly and securely.
A fully-licensed Virtual Asset Service Provider by South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), with regulatory approvals in Europe and initial approval from Dubai’s VARA, VALR offers a comprehensive suite of crypto products, including spot trading, futures, staking, lending, OTC trading, and VALR Pay. It serves over 1,400 corporate and institutional clients and more than 1.4 million traders worldwide.
The company, which raised a US$50 million Series B funding round in March 2022, recently completed its Proof of Reserves audit, conducted by Hacken, a leader in blockchain security and compliance, and it has now been granted two key licenses by the FSCA.
Those are an Over-The-Counter Derivatives Provider (ODP) license, as well as an additional Financial Services Provider (FSP) license, which will position VALR as one of the first entities in South Africa to offer these categories for crypto assets.
The ODP license enables VALR to provide a range of over-the-counter derivatives, including Contracts for Difference (CFDs) with underlying assets such as crypto assets, currencies, commodities, shares, and indices; Quarterly and Perpetual Futures Contracts with crypto assets as the underlying; Options, Forwards, and Swaps, all with crypto assets as the underlying.
This marks one of the first occasions in South Africa that a financial service provider is licensed to offer these products with crypto assets as the underlying. The additional FSP licensing allows VALR to extend its offerings to traditional financial products, including deposits, shares, bonds, and securities.
“This ODP license represents a critical step in integrating crypto assets with established financial instruments, allowing us to deliver secure and compliant products to our clients. It underscores our commitment to regulatory excellence and operational integrity and we’re very excited about introducing more and more products that serve our users,” said Farzam Ehsani, co-founder and CEO of VALR.
