Forex trading in South Africa is growing month in and month out. Today, South Africans are some of the most active traders on broker sites. While these brokers mainly focus on forex, most brokers in South Africa offer other trading instruments, including stocks, indices, and even cryptocurrencies. Because of this and other reasons, the interest in trading cryptocurrencies continues to grow.
As interest in trading cryptocurrencies grows, so does the number of crypto trading platforms. Selecting the best trading platform among the thousands that exist requires people to consider a number of factors. These include:
- The fees charged by the platform.
- The security of the platform.
- The liquidity on the platform.
- The collection of assets.
- The reputation of the trading platform.
Today, we are going to put 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 has quickly gained good standing with many crypto traders today. This broker has a commitment to keeping clients’ funds as safe as possible. On top of that, 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 has a large selection of crypto assets on its platform. In total, Binance lists 387 different coins to invest in. This massive collection of trading instruments attracts a lot of investors giving the platform the highest liquidity in any crypto exchange. As a caveat, Binance supports a wide range of local currencies including the South African Rand. Therefore, clients from South Africa do not have to convert their funds once they make a deposit.
Binance is ranked first among all exchanges on both Coinmarketcap and Coingecko, earning a trust score of 9.9 on Coinmarketcap and 10 on Coingecko. As it stands, Binance has a great reputation among traders and critics. Additionally, it has relatively low fees, with holders of BNB on the platform paying lower fees. The more BNB a client holds, the lower the trading fees.
Coinbase
Coinbase ranks second on both 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, this is the second-ranked 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 have to mention an unfortunate event from 2021. Coinbase was hacked as a result of a flaw in its account recovery system that affected over 6,000 accounts. However, Coinbase quickly fixed the security issues and refunded the users in full. While there is a history of hacking, it is good to see that the company is quick to fix any vulnerabilities and refund clients.
Unfortunately, this exchange does not support the South African Rand. Therefore, clients from South Africa would have to convert their funds to one of the supported currencies. Nonetheless, Coinbase allows clients to invest in a total of 245 different coins. The diversity on this platform is a 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. This is a plus as they do not have to trade 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, this is a top 10 exchange on both Coinmarketcap and Coingecko. On Coinmarketcap, it ranks fourth with a trust score rating of 6.9. On the other hand, it ranks fifth on Coingecko with a trust rating of 10. This is a great reputation and shows that the platform is widely accepted as a top-tier platform.
Sadly, KuCoin has been hacked before. In 2020, the company was hacked and it lost $281 million in a go. The company froze deposits and withdrawals to mitigate the losses and went on to recover over $200 million from the hackers. Nonetheless, the fees on KuCoin are industry standard at 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 cryptocurrencies and CFDs on cryptocurrencies. This gives investors some variety and diversity to choose from. Nonetheless, it is important to understand that trading CFDs carries many risks and most accounts lose their funds in such markets.
In terms of liquidity, this broker site has one of the largest user bases with over 28 million registered users by 2022. The high liquidity keeps fees low and orders execution fast. Moreover, eToro sources its assets from liquidity providers, whose liquidity can be high. For crypto assets, eToro charges a variable spread received from its liquidity provider plus a markup of 1% as a trading fee to eToro. The markup widens the spread by lowering the selling price and raising the buy price.
In terms of security, this company has regulations in multiple jurisdictions including in the Uk by the FCA, in Cyprus by the CySEC, and in Australia by the ASIC. Generally, regulated brokers have some of the best security features in the market. This is because regulators require them to have top-level protection of client 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. While there are a ton of assets, brokers usually cannot rival exchanges in the number of listed coins.
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 among 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 clients time and conversion fees.
The fees on OKX depend on the Tier a trader is on. The Tiers are determined by the trader’s OKB balance and 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. Such traders pay a 0.080% maker fee and a 0.100% taker fee.
Further, OKX’s liquidity is fairly high which means order execution is fast. Moreover, this keeps prices fairly tight when no major events or news affect the market. With a collection of 363 different coins to invest in, traders are spoilt 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 employ cold storage techniques and encryption algorithms to keep their system security tight.
Kraken
Kraken is yet another crypto exchange that ranks top 10 on both Coinmarketcap and Coingecko. It has a trust score of 9 on Coingecko and 7.6 on Coinmarketcap. These are the two top cryptocurrency data aggregator websites in the world. Ranking top 10 on both websites is a big deal. Moreover, Kraken has achieved a great trust score on both websites.
Additionally, Kraken has a large number of listed coins with 222 different coins available for trading. Clearly, diversifying one’s portfolio is not a problem with this crypto exchange. Further, this exchange has great 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 why many traders trust Kraken as their choice for a trading partner. Another reason Kraken attracts a high number of traders is its reasonably low fees. The fees on this exchange depend on the trading volume of a trader per month with the highest maker fee at 0.16% and the highest taker fee at 0.26%.
Uniswap
Uniswap is regarded as the best decentralised cryptocurrency exchange in the world. It ranks first on both Coinmarketcap and Coingecko among all decentralized crypto exchanges. There are currently over 900 crypto coins to trade on this platform. Additionally, this exchange has high liquidity as many traders flock to trade on the top decentralized exchange.
Uniswap was built with top encryption techniques to protect user assets. Nonetheless, it is important to know that decentralized exchanges may carry more risk of losing assets. This can happen not only through hack attacks but also by scammers on the P2P system.
Uniswap can charge slightly lower fees compared to some centralized and other decentralized exchanges. Uniswap charges a 0.3% for swapping tokens. The fee is split by liquidity providers proportional to their contribution to liquidity reserves.
Closing Remarks
As it stands, it seems that 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 ensure you have a pleasant trading experience, whether you earn profits or not. It is also very important to remember that this is a very volatile market and you should only invest money you can afford to lose.
