The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume of transactions, Binance, has announced that its users will now be able to deposit and withdraw the South African Rand (ZAR) to and from their Binance wallets.
According to Binance, this is meant to increase the adoption and mainstream accessibility of crypto in the region.
Binance stated that the service will be rolled out in 2 phases. Phase 1, which went live with immediate effect today, enables Binance users to deposit ZAR into their Binance wallets and convert ZAR to bitcoin(BTC), binance USD(BUSD), ethereum(ETH), tether (USDT) and binance coin (BNB).
Phase 2 will include ZAR fiat withdrawals for all Binance users and will be launched on August 25 at 8:00 a.m. UTC.
According to MyBroadband, the fiat gateway will let South African users make instant EFT deposits using Stitch, a South African financial API infrastructure startup, at a 1% service fee. The startup expanded to Nigeria towards the end of 2021 and plans to soon cover Kenya, Ghana, and Egypt.
Speaking on the launch of the service, Hannes Wassels, the recently appointed Binance country manager for South Africa, stated that the company is excited to take this step in making access to digital assets more effortless for South Africans. He added that this move by Binance aligns with the company’s goal of driving crypto adoption and promoting financial accessibility.
Binance claims that the service supports South Africa’s top 5 banks Absa, Capitec, FNB, Nedbank and Standard Bank.
It has been a good week for crypto in the country, with the country’s central bank issuing a guidance note a few days back advising banks to refrain from refusing to deal with crypto assets service providers.
