This is welcome news for all South Africans. I’m encouraged that we will find the right, principled framework... one that protects our financial system while enabling innovation and positions South Africa as a leader on the world stage.

Reflection time: When we started @VALRdotcom 8.5 years ago, our ambition was to build a financial institution from Africa that serves humanity and could compete with the very best in the world. Today, VALR is Africa’s largest crypto trading platform and digital asset infrastructure provider by trade volume, serving individuals, professional traders, businesses and some of the continent’s largest financial institutions. The chart below is an illustration of that scale, showing USDT/ZAR trading volumes (publicly available data) over recent months and how VALR has created the deepest liquidity and volume in SA, benefiting our customers with the very best pricing and execution (same story with USDC). Stablecoins are rapidly becoming an important part of global financial infrastructure, and VALR is increasingly becoming the platform of choice in South Africa and the continent to trade stablecoins. But trading is only part of what VALR has become. We have built infrastructure spanning trading, custody, payments, investing, derivatives, stablecoins, treasury, APIs and institutional services - allowing businesses and financial institutions to access and build on digital assets without having to recreate that infrastructure themselves. Our VALR Business platform is being made accessible to many more institutions now, through which we are building the infrastructure for businesses to make and receive payments, move money, manage digital assets and access global financial networks. Stablecoins are already making many forms of payment and settlement faster, cheaper and more efficient. This week, FNB (one of the largest banks in Africa) launched its crypto asset offering in partnership with VALR. We are enormously proud that an institution of FNB’s scale has chosen VALR as its partner, and there is much more to come. Finance itself is changing so quickly and AI is compounding that change. AI is likely to change not only how people interact with financial services, but who (or what) uses them. AI agents will increasingly need the ability to hold value, make payments, trade, settle transactions and interact autonomously with financial infrastructure. VALR is building for that world too. Our ambition has always been to build financial infrastructure that can serve people, businesses, institutions (and increasingly machines) across Africa and around the world. Ultimately we want to help humanity and civilization advance (and work alongside so many others who are working towards the same goal). There is still an enormous amount to build, and we are still near the beginning. But I’m incredibly proud of what the VALR team has built so far, very grateful to the millions of customers and businesses who have trusted us, and excited about what comes next. Onwards!

VALR is thrilled to partner with FNB and the FirstRand Group to bring crypto assets natively into mainstream banking for millions of everyday users. FirstRand is where I deepened my knowledge of banking and finance, and I'm extremely excited to see the team pioneering this next evolution in digital finance.

Today is the last day to make your voice heard on South Africa’s draft Crypto Asset Manual. Join VALR, Luno, EasyEquities, GoTyme Bank, more than 200 other organisations, and over 6,000 individuals who have signed at CATASTROPHE.co.za Also, send your comments by end of business today to: [email protected] Your voice matters. Make it heard. [repost for reach to help]

CATASTROPHE.co.za now has the support of: 200 organisations 5,574 individuals If you haven’t had a chance to sign in support of South Africa’s future, please do. We really need to get this right for all South Africans.

CATASTROPHE.co.za 24 hours after launch: 156 organisations 3,549 individuals Join thousands of South Africans in support. We, as a nation, need to get this right. Too much at stake to get it wrong.

Crypto. Gold. Bundles. Perps. Futures. Equities. Commodities. Payments. Investing. Borrowing. Yield. Tokenization & onchain finance changes everything. VALR is building the infra to bring it all together. And make it accessible to everyone. Still early. Still building. Doing our best to serve you ❤️

Still thrilled that VALR was the first centralized exchange globally to bring Hyperliquid markets to its millions of users. Surreal to hear the below clip. We’re still early.