Forex trading in South Africa is increasing month by month. Today, South Africans are among the most active traders on broker sites. Although these brokers primarily focus on forex, most brokers in South Africa offer other trading instruments including stocks, indices, and even cryptocurrencies. For this and other reasons, interest in cryptocurrency trading continues to grow.
As interest in cryptocurrency trading grows, so does the number of crypto trading platforms. To select the best trading platform from the thousands out there, people need to consider a number of factors. These include:
- The fees charged by the platform.
- Platform security.
- Liquidity on the platform.
- Asset collection.
- The reputation of the trading platform.
Today we are going to take these factors into consideration and list some of the best cryptocurrency trading platforms in South Africa.
Binance
Binance is probably the first choice for a crypto trading platform for many traders. Launched in 2017, this company quickly gained a good reputation among many crypto traders today. This broker is committed to keeping client funds as safe as possible. In addition to this, Binance runs an insurance program called SAFU. SAFU stands for Secure Asset Fund for Users. Traders on this platform can trade with peace of mind knowing that security is a top priority.
Additionally, Binance offers a wide selection of crypto assets on its platform. In total, Binance lists 387 different coins to invest in. This massive collection of trading instruments attracts many investors, giving the platform the highest liquidity of any crypto exchange. As a caveat, Binance supports a wide range of local currencies, including the South African Rand. Therefore, customers from South Africa do not have to convert their funds once they have made a deposit.
Binance is ranked first among all exchanges on Coinmarketcap and Coingecko, earning a Trust Score of 9.9 on Coinmarketcap and 10 on Coingecko. As it stands, Binance has a high reputation among traders and reviewers. Moreover, its fees are relatively low, with BNB holders on the platform paying lower fees. The more BNB a client holds, the lower the trading fees.
Coinbase
Coinbase ranks second over Coinmarketcap and Coingecko. On Coingecko, this exchange has a trust score of 10, while on Coinmarketcap, it only has a score of 7.8. In terms of reputation, it is the second largest stock exchange in the world. Naturally, this attracts traders to this exchange. As such, this exchange has the second highest liquidity among crypto exchanges.
In terms of security, we must mention an unfortunate event of 2021. Coinbase was hacked following a flaw in its account recovery system that affected more than 6,000 accounts. However, Coinbase quickly fixed the security issues and gave users full refunds. Although there is a history of hacks, it’s good to see that the company is quickly patching vulnerabilities and refunding customers.
Unfortunately, this exchange does not support the South African Rand. Therefore, customers in South Africa should convert their funds to one of the supported currencies. Nevertheless, Coinbase allows customers to invest in a total of 245 different coins. The diversity on this platform is one thing to behold. Moreover, the fees on this platform are also not extravagant. Coinbase charges a flat 1% transaction fee on all cryptocurrency transactions.
KuCoin
KuCoin supports over 45 different local currencies, including the South African Rand. It’s a plus because they don’t have to exchange in another currency. They can simply deposit and start trading the 812 crypto assets listed on KuCoin. This exchange also has incredible liquidity due to the high daily trading volume on the platform.
In terms of reputation, it is a top 10 exchange on Coinmarketcap and Coingecko. On Coinmarketcap, it ranks fourth with a trust score of 6.9. On the other hand, it ranks fifth on Coingecko with a trust rating of 10. This is an excellent reputation and shows that the platform is widely accepted as a top platform.
Unfortunately, KuCoin has already been hacked. In 2020, the company was hacked and lost $281 million all at once. The company froze deposits and withdrawals to mitigate losses and later recovered more than $200 million from the hackers. Nonetheless, fees on KuCoin are the industry standard between 0.005% and 0.10% per trade, and a 20% discount on trading fees is offered when using its token, KuCoin Token.
eToro
eToro is primarily a multi-asset broker that allows investors to trade both real-world cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency CFDs. This gives investors some variety and diversity to choose from. Nevertheless, it is important to understand that trading CFDs involves many risks and most accounts lose their funds in these markets.
In terms of liquidity, this brokerage site has one of the largest user bases with over 28 million registered users by 2022. High liquidity keeps fees low and order execution fast. Additionally, eToro sources from liquidity providers, whose liquidity may be high. For crypto assets, eToro charges variable spread received from its liquidity provider plus a 1% markup as a trading fee to eToro. The markup widens the spread by lowering the selling price and raising the buying price.
In terms of security, this company is regulated in several jurisdictions including the UK by FCA, Cyprus by CySEC, and Australia by ASIC. Generally, regulated brokers have some of the best security features in the market. Indeed, regulators require them to have high-level protection of customer funds.
In terms of the availability of trading instruments, there are a total of 92 crypto assets listed and available for trading. Some popular crypto assets available on eToro include Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Binance Coin, Cardano, Solana, Polkadot, and Tron. Although there are a ton of assets, brokers generally cannot compete with exchanges in the number of coins traded.
OKX
Ranked seventh on Coinmarketcap, OKX is worth mentioning. OKX has a trust score of 6.3 on Coinmarketcap and 10 on Coingecko. This demonstrates a good reputation with traders. It is a top choice for South African traders as it supports the South African Rand. Therefore, clients from this jurisdiction can make deposits and start trading immediately. This is always a plus as it saves customers time and conversion costs.
Fees on OKX depend on the level a trader is at. Levels are determined by OKB balance and trader’s asset balance or 30-day trading volume. As an example, Tier 1 traders have a balance of less than 500 OKB and an asset balance of less than $100,000. These merchants pay a maker fee of 0.080% and a taker fee of 0.100%.
Moreover, the liquidity of OKX is quite high, which means that order execution is fast. Moreover, it keeps the prices quite tight when there are no major events or news affecting the market. With a collection of 363 different coins to invest in, traders are spoiled for choice with this exchange.
In terms of security, OKX claims that its servers cannot be hacked or compromised, even physically. This is because they use cold storage techniques and encryption algorithms to maintain the security of their system.
kraken
Kraken is another crypto exchange that ranks in the top 10 on Coinmarketcap and Coingecko. It has a trust score of 9 on Coingecko and 7.6 on Coinmarketcap. These are the two best cryptocurrency data aggregator websites in the world. Ranking in the top 10 on both websites is a big deal. Additionally, Kraken has an excellent trust score on both websites.
Additionally, Kraken has a large number of coins listed with 222 different coins available for trade. Clearly, diversifying your portfolio is not a problem with this crypto exchange. Moreover, this exchange has high liquidity due to the high daily trading volumes. Therefore, clients can expect fast order executions.
Notably, Kraken has never had a major hacking incident. The company takes the security of user funds very seriously. This is one of the reasons many traders trust Kraken as their trading partner. Another reason why Kraken attracts a large number of traders is its reasonably low fees. The fees on this exchange depend on a trader’s trading volume per month with the highest maker fees at 0.16% and the highest taker fees at 0.26%.
Uniswap
Uniswap is considered the best decentralized cryptocurrency exchange in the world. It ranks first on Coinmarketcap and Coingecko among all decentralized crypto exchanges. There are currently over 900 cryptocurrencies to trade on this platform. Moreover, this exchange has high liquidity as many traders flock to trade on the premier decentralized exchange.
Uniswap was designed with the best encryption techniques to protect user assets. Nevertheless, it is important to know that decentralized exchanges may come with more risk of losing assets. This can happen not only by hacking attacks but also by scammers on the P2P system.
Uniswap may charge slightly lower fees compared to some centralized and decentralized exchanges. Uniswap charges 0.3% for token swapping. The commission is distributed among the liquidity providers in proportion to their contribution to the liquidity reserves.
As things stand, it looks like crypto trading in South Africa is here to stay. With thousands of exchanges and brokers in the market, it is essential to select a trading platform with the best trading conditions. This is the only way to guarantee you a pleasant trading experience, whether you make a profit or not. It is also very important to remember that this is a very volatile market and you should only invest money that you can afford to lose.
