Which Cryptocurrencies are Available in South Africa?

As of May 2022, there are over 19,000+ different cryptocurrencies in circulation. A few of them that you may know, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, are two of the most popular cryptocurrencies by the number of investors in the world.

Including these, what are some popular cryptocurrencies that are available to trade in South Africa? Well, here is a list of 5 out of the 160+ cryptocurrencies that you can buy through Easy Crypto!

These five cryptocurrencies rank at the top 10 largest crypto assets by market capitalisation. In no particular order, these are what we think are interesting projects to start looking into — Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), and Solana (SOL).

Bitcoin (BTC)

Conceived in 2008 during the global financial crisis, Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency ever created. Since then, it has paved the way for thousands of cryptocurrencies in circulation today.

Bitcoin (BTC) is commonly referred to as digital gold, as it shares many of gold’s intrinsic qualities.

Bitcoin is still currently the most popular digital asset that people buy through us, at least partly due to the growing speculation that Bitcoin’s limited supply and growing demand would make it even more valuable in the future.

Become a Bitcoin adopter: Click here to buy Bitcoin in South Africa.

Ethereum (ETH)

Ethereum (ETH) is what could be referred to as the world’s first ‘Smart Coin’. This is because Ethereum doesn’t only act as a payment network, but also as a computer network for hosting applications — such as games, online shops, and alternative banks where you can trade, borrow, or lend crypto assets.

Essentially, Ethereum gives power back to Internet users, by offering an infrastructure like the Internet, but one that is resistant to censorship and unfair corporate monopoly over software changes and decision-making.

It’s difficult to paint the big picture of Ethereum in a few sentences, but when somebody asks me what the future looks like, I personally go straight to thinking about Ethereum and its use cases.

Explore Ethereum: Click here to buy Ethereum in South Africa.

Ripple (XRP)

Ripples’ XRP is the native token for the Ripple — a network of payment providers such as banks and money services that aim to provide a frictionless experience to send money globally.

Often referred to as the ‘Banks Coin’, XRP is designed to be ultra-fast, ultra-cheap and ultra-scalable. It currently takes an average of 4 days to make an international bank transfer using the SWIFT network, but XRP transactions are settled in seconds.

For this reason, over 200 major world banks have partnered with XRP, including many well-known conglomerates such as ANZ, Westpac, Western Union, HSBC, and the Bank of America. For a blockchain project, Ripple certainly has an impressive list of partners testing XRP!

Have a taste of Ripple: Click here to buy XRP with ZAR in South Africa.

Cardano (ADA)

Cardano has been around since 2017, and it was developed by a team of academics and scientists, led by Charles Hoskinson. Hoskinson was one of the early key developers of Ethereum, and knew that the first iterations of Ethereum will not be sustainable in the long run.

Thus, the Cardano blockchain was developed to offer what Ethereum could do, and so much more.

Cardano runs on a different validation protocol, called Proof of Stake. Instead of mining for the cryptocurrency, validators ‘stake’ or deposit some ADA coins as collateral.

Validators are picked at random to validate transactions and earn some newly minted ADA coins. If a validator decides to disobey the Cardano protocol, they will get fined, and have a portion of their stake taken away as penalty.

This discourages dishonest behaviour and incentivised honest behaviours among network participants in a decentralised way — without needing some type of central government to police the network.

Because Cardano doesn’t use miners, the blockchain is considerably faster and more eco-friendly than Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Experience Cardano. Click here to Cardano (ADA) coins with ZAR in South Africa.

Solana (SOL)

The Solana blockchain was built to go incredibly fast. It claims to be able to process 50,000 transactions per second — that’s 3000 times faster than Ethereum, and with very affordable transaction fees.

Just like Cardano, the Solana blockchain uses Proof of Stake technology to cut down on time and energy required to process transactions.

However, what sets Solana apart from Cardano is its use of another technology called Proof of History.

Simply explained, Proof of History is what gives Solana its power boost.

By introducing a universal timestamp system onto each transaction, the blockchain can easily organise incoming transactions into precisely ordered blocks, even if it looks like a mess on the outside.

Solana’s ultra speed has made the network attractive to developers, particularly the ones who are heavily involved in decentralised financial and gaming applications.

Get in on the action. Buy Solana (SOL) with ZAR in South Africa.

How to buy cryptocurrencies in South Africa

Now that you have a general idea on which cryptocurrencies are available to buy in South Africa, the next step is to try buying some through Easy Crypto!

A great way to buy cryptocurrency in ZA is through a secure cryptocurrency retailer. Here at Easy Crypto we strive to deliver excellent services for our customers in South Africa.

Get started: Click here to sign-up and buy cryptocurrency in South Africa!

Explore all the cryptocurrencies in South Africa

If you think these five cryptocurrencies are impressive, wait till you find out more about the other kinds of cryptocurrencies — with their unique technologies, applications, and value offers!

It’s good to note that the price of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies are highly volatile in the market. Don’t risk more money than you are willing to handle.

If you’re interested in investing in cryptocurrencies, be sure to research some investment best practices on your own, and take into account your own unique life situation.