Changpeng Zhao, CEO at Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by adjusted trading volume, has revealed that the firm will introduce a fiat gateway for South African digital asset traders, which will allow them to make deposits in Rands.
The announcement was made during the Blockchain Africa Conference, which is being held in Johannesburg.
Zhao said that South African crypto traders will soon have the option to make Rand deposits on the platform via Binance’s official website. These new services are part of Binance’s ongoing global expansion plans.
Zhao stated:
“Africa illustrates one of the largest demands and instrumental use cases for cryptocurrency, notably for financial access. According to the World Bank, approximately 66 percent of sub-saharan Africans are listed as unbanked. So instead of trying to bank the unbanked, let’s try and Bitcoin the un-Bitcoined.”
Binance is reportedly offering its services in 35 African nations. Zhao pointed out that South Africa was one of the larger countries that the exchange would be serving.
He remarked:
“Looking at South African specifically, crypto adoption continues to rise with SA being one of the top five countries in terms of cryptocurrency ownership. Today I’m excited to announce that Binance is launching a South African fiat-to-crypto gateway soon. This will enable South Africans to buy cryptocurrencies with their local bank accounts.”
Tanya Knowles, Binance’s South Africa country manager, noted that many South African residents are benefiting from the freedom of information and movement, however, they do not yet have freedom of money.
Binance presently supports crypto trading in 180 countries and processes millions of transactions. The value of the exchange’s global digital currency transactions is estimated to be about $4 billion per day, according to data from Coin360.
South Africans will soon have the option to trade in the following pairs: BTC/ZAR, Binance Coin (BNB)/ZAR, Ethereum (ETH)/ZAR, Tether (USDT)/ZAR and Binance USD (BUSD)/ZAR.
Knowles confirmed that the Binance Charity Foundation will donate $1 million in order to support the development of blockchain-focused education initiatives in South Africa.
The organization aims to work with local firms to provide educational programs to drive or promote the growth of the crypto sector in the country.