Crypto payments have exploded in South Africa over the last few years, and there is no doubt that they are becoming mainstream, VALR co-founder and CEO Farzam Ehsani has told MyBroadband.
However, some obstacles remain that hinder the widespread adoption of cryptocurrency for payments, such as the need for clarity and harmony in tax regulations.
Another challenge to enabling the use of cryptocurrency as money is education, Luno’s country manager for South Africa, Christo de Wit, said.
“Many potential users and merchants still don’t fully understand how crypto payments work or the practical benefits they offer,” said De Wit.
“There has been tremendous progress on the infrastructure front, but broader adoption will require continued investment in user experience and merchant onboarding tools.”
De Wit said that their recent integration with merchant infrastructure via MoneyBadger has been transformative, including support for cryptocurrency through South Africa’s existing payments ecosystem.
“This leapfrogs years of merchant-by-merchant integration work,” he said.
MoneyBadger, formerly called CryptoConvert, is a South African fintech founded by Carel van Wyk that simplifies cryptocurrency payments for businesses.
“South Africa is leading the way in crypto payments in Africa. Luno has over 6 million customers in South Africa, who have proven to be enthusiastic early adopters of crypto technology,” said De Wit.
“Crypto and stablecoin payments offer faster, more affordable, and more transparent settlement than traditional banking.”
De Wit said crypto also enables more compelling customer incentives, such as instant Tether (USDT) rewards of up to 10% back for Luno Pay users.
“Tether is a popular stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, and Luno Pay users earn up to 10% back instantly when paying with USDT at any of nearly 700,000 merchants nationwide,” he said.
“With our instant USDT rewards, customers receive real value immediately at the point of purchase, not points that need to be accumulated and redeemed later.”
De Wit explained that Luno Pay users can spend their crypto through partnerships with Scan to Pay and Zapper, making transactions easy to initiate.
He also said they could offer meaningful rewards on every transaction, including small purchases, because crypto payments have minimal infrastructure overhead compared to traditional rails.
“This creates a better customer experience and drives adoption. So far Luno has paid out $37,000 (R635,000) in USDT rewards to customers of Luno Pay.”
Like sending email
Ehsani likened the impact of crypto payments on the global financial system to the effect email had on global communications.
“The beautiful thing about crypto payments is that there is no difference between sending a payment next door and to the other side of the globe,” he said.
“We are very familiar with this concept when it comes to communications. We don’t send domestic and international emails or text messages — that’s a nonsensical categorisation.”
He said that crypto was doing the same for payments. Soon, domestic and international payments will be an anachronistic concept.
“Crypto payments are cheaper, faster, and easier to make. There is zero probability that our current financial payments system survives the disruption of what crypto payments have to offer,” said Ehsani.
“It is only a matter of time.”
De Wit and Ehsani highlighted that the world’s two biggest payment card services companies, Mastercard and Visa, were modernising their systems using blockchain technology and stablecoins.
“In fact, Visa has recently launched a pilot where it delivers payments directly to merchant stablecoin wallets, bypassing the traditional settlement layer altogether,” Ehsani said.
De Wit said they also expect to see a gradual evolution were merchants don’t immediately convert the crypto they receive into fiat currency alongside increased institutional adoption.
“Holding crypto can offer advantages like faster cross-border settlements and protection against currency volatility,” said De Wit.
“As confidence grows and the regulatory environment continues to mature in South Africa, we anticipate that more merchants will be comfortable holding a mixed portfolio of crypto and fiat.”
Luno Pay and VALR Pay adoption in South Africa
Asked about interesting trends they observed in the past year, De Wit said the data revealed purchases ranging from buying a loaf of bread at Pick n Pay to high-value transactions of tens of thousands of rands.
“The wide range of transactions indicates that cryptocurrency payments are becoming more common for both everyday purchases and major expenses,” he said.
“Our data shows that many customers use Luno Pay regularly for routine purchases and services.”
De Wit said Luno Pay was launched in November 2024 and by 17 November 2025, over 53,000 completed payments had been processed across more than 1,900 merchants.
This represented a transaction volume of over R34 million, with 70% of Luno Pay being repeat customers.
Ehsani said that VALR processed over $15 billion (R257.5 billion) of stablecoins into and out of its wallet infrastructure over the last year.
“VALR’s European entity is now the largest minter of USDC with Circle EU and one of the top 10 USDC minters globally,” he said. USDC is a rival dollar-backed stablecoin to USDT.
“VALR’s EU entity minted over $2.5 billion (R42.9 billion) in USDC last year. In this context, it’s important to note that our USDT trading volume is larger than our USDC volumes.”
Ehsani said that the opportunities in the crypto payments space are huge.
“VALR’s crypto infrastructure is already powering some of the largest financial institutions in Africa,” he said.
“We have also seen a huge increase in inbound requests to assist many more of the biggest financial institutions with building their crypto infrastructure. It’s a very exciting time to be alive!”