Crypto exchange fees in South Africa explained

Who this guide is for

Anyone who has looked at a fee schedule, seen “0.35 %”, and assumed that was the whole cost. It is also for people comparing two platforms on their advertised rate without checking the deposit and withdrawal charges that sit on either side of the trade. If you already know how maker and taker orders work, skip to the worked examples. The figures come from each platform’s own pages, read between 27 September and 3 October 2026; where a fee is not published we say “unknown”.

The layers at each platform

Layer 1: getting rand in

The cheapest rail everywhere is an ordinary EFT from your own bank account. It is free at VALR (no minimum) and Luno (no limit once fully verified, though Capitec and Absa accounts cannot EFT to Luno), costs 0.5 % capped at R95 per transaction at AltCoinTrader, and is free at Ovex with a R98 minimum. Every faster or more convenient rail is priced: Luno’s instant deposit through Stitch, Absa Pay, Capitec Pay and Apple Pay; AltCoinTrader’s Capitec Pay, Absa Pay and cards, plus 5 % on cash deposits; and VALR’s South African card deposits at 3.9 %. The rand deposit routes table at the end of this page gives each route’s fee, minimum or limit and time to credit. Binance’s official ZAR pages list a linked bank account through Stitch, a bank transfer (EFT), Absa Pay, and card or Apple Pay, with no minimum deposit. The current rand deposit fee is shown only in-app and is not printed on any official page we could read, so it is unknown. Minimum deposits differ as well; see the smallest rand deposit at each exchange.

The practical rule: if you can wait a day or two for an EFT to clear, the deposit layer costs nothing at VALR, Luno and Ovex. Paying for speed costs more than the trade itself.

Layer 2: the trading fee

Maker and taker

Order-book exchanges charge two rates. A taker order fills immediately against orders already in the book (a market order, or a limit order priced to fill at once) and pays the higher rate. A maker order rests in the book until someone else trades against it and pays the lower rate, sometimes a rebate. All three tiered South African schedules make the maker rate cheaper: VALR 0.18 % versus 0.35 %, Luno 0.40 % versus 0.60 %, AltCoinTrader 0.50 % versus 0.60 %.

Pair classes

The pair you trade can matter as much as the side. VALR charges 0.18 % / 0.35 % on fiat-quoted pairs such as BTC/ZAR but 0.08 % / 0.10 % on crypto-quoted pairs such as BTC/USDT and 0.05 % / 0.10 % on stablecoin-to-stablecoin pairs. Luno charges 0.60 % taker on BTC/ZAR and other crypto/ZAR pairs but 0.20 % taker on USDT/ZAR and USDC/ZAR, where makers receive a 0.01 % rebate, and 0.10 % taker on crypto/crypto pairs. AltCoinTrader publishes one schedule for all pairs. Binance publishes one global standard Regular User rate of 0.10 % for both sides (0.075 % when fees are paid in BNB) and no ZAR pair-specific schedule, so its actual pair fees may differ; on 3 October 2026 its official API showed only USDT/ZAR trading, with BTC/ZAR, ETH/ZAR, BNB/ZAR and BUSD/ZAR halted. Bitget has no rand pair at all: its global crypto/crypto rate is 0.10 % on most pairs and 0.20 % on 54 including BTC/USDT (per-pair rates from its public API, read 3 October 2026). Rand is converted to crypto at a quote whose spread Bitget does not publish (see the Bitget profile).

Volume tiers

Rates fall as your 30-day volume rises. VALR has nine tiers measured in USDT (Tier 2 starts at 50,000 USDT), Luno has 13 tiers measured in rand (Tier 1 covers R0–R20,000), and AltCoinTrader has six tiers (Tier 1 covers R0–R100,000, Tier 3 from R1 million is 0.20 % / 0.30 %). A new account pays the entry tier until its 30-day volume passes the first threshold (50,000 USDT at VALR, R20,000 at Luno, R100,000 at AltCoinTrader), so the entry tier is the number to compare unless you trade more than that each month.

Instant buy buttons

The South African platforms also sell a one-tap purchase that skips the order book. VALR’s Simple Buy/Sell/Swap and Auto-Buy cost 1.6 %. Luno’s buy and sell from the Portfolio screen cost 2 % each way. AltCoinTrader’s Easy Buy & Sell charges 1.5 % on each order, up to 2 BTC per order. Ovex’s request-for-quote screen charges 0 % but earns from the spread in the quoted price, which is not published as a number. Convenience is the most expensive layer on a small trade: 2 % of R5,000 is R100, against R30 for a Luno taker order on the same amount.

Layer 3: getting rand out

Withdrawal pricing is where platforms differ most. Luno’s normal withdrawal is free and takes up to two business days; express costs R20.00 to real-time-clearing banks or R80.00 to others. VALR gives individual clients 30 free normal withdrawals a calendar month, then R8.50 each, and charges R30 for a fast withdrawal. AltCoinTrader charges R16 + 0.5 % (the percentage capped at R95), with an unclear minimum (R17 in the near-instant withdrawal article, none on the fees page), plus a R60 surcharge for near-instant processing (R140 above R100,000). Ovex charges a flat R60 with a R100 minimum. Binance’s rand withdrawal fee is unknown. VALR, Luno and Ovex pay rand out only to a South African bank account in your own name, and AltCoinTrader to the bank account registered on your profile.

Layer 4: crypto network fees

Sending coins off a platform costs a network fee that the platform sets. VALR quotes a network-dependent fee before you confirm and states that it can be more than it pays the network. Luno charges a dynamic send fee shown at confirmation. AltCoinTrader and Ovex publish per-asset fees, most of them flat, for example 0.00012 BTC at AltCoinTrader and 0.00015 BTC at Ovex, or 5 USDT on the Tron network and 2 USDT on Arbitrum and Solana at AltCoinTrader against 8.0 USDT on Ethereum at Ovex. Binance publishes a flat fee per network on its global fee page and adjusts it with network conditions. Receiving crypto is free at all five platforms in the worked examples below, apart from a Luno charge on Bitcoin deposits under 0.00000546 BTC. Which network you choose can change the sending fee several-fold, which is the subject of our guide to the cheapest network for sending USDT.

Layer 5: spread

Spread is the gap between the price you pay and the price you could sell at a moment later. On an order book you can see it; on a quote screen it is invisible until you compare the quote with the order-book price elsewhere. Ovex’s 0 % fee, and the instant-buy buttons at VALR and Luno, should be read with this in mind: the published percentage is a floor, not the full cost. We could not verify how large any platform’s spread is, and it changes constantly, so no figure is given here.

Worked examples (assumptions, not quotes)

Assume R10,000 deposited by EFT, one taker buy at the entry tier, one taker sell later, and one normal rand withdrawal, ignoring spread, price movement and your bank’s charges.

• VALR: deposit R0; buy 0.35 % = R35; sell R35; withdrawal R0 (within 30 per month). Total about R70.
• Luno: deposit R0; buy 0.60 % = R60; sell R60; withdrawal R0. Total about R120. Trading USDT/ZAR instead: R20 per side.
• AltCoinTrader: deposit 0.5 % = R50; buy 0.60 % = R60; sell R60; withdrawal R16 + R50 = R66. Total about R236.
• Ovex: deposit R0; 0 % per side but an unpublished spread; withdrawal R60. Total R60 plus spread.
• Binance: buy 0.10 % = R10; sell R10 (global standard rate; a ZAR pair-specific rate is not published), on USDT/ZAR, the only rand pair trading on 3 October 2026; deposit and withdrawal fees unknown, so no total.

Swap the taker orders for instant buttons and the picture changes: R160 per side at VALR (1.6 %) and R200 per side at Luno (2 %). Swap the EFT for an instant rail and add R140 (1.4 % at Luno) or R390 (3.9 % card at VALR) before you have traded. You can run your own amount, side and number of trades through the fee calculator; it models a percentage trading fee plus a flat withdrawal fee and uses no live prices.

Availability and licensing limitations

Four of the platforms on this page, VALR (FSP 53308), Luno (FSP 53314), AltCoinTrader (FSP 53614) and Ovex (FSP 53922), appear in their own name in the FSCA’s list of licensed crypto asset service providers titled March 2026. Binance does not; its South Africa page says it is “actively engaged” in the licensing process, and its support pages name Abu Dhabi (ADGM) entities as the service providers. Bitget lists an FSCA licence, but it is held by group subsidiary Parsa Financial Services (FSP 52563), not by the operator its terms name (see is Bitget legal in South Africa?). A lower fee at a platform that is not on the FSCA’s list is a different kind of trade-off from a lower fee at one that is, and our guide to FSCA-licensed exchanges explains what the licence does and does not cover.

KYC and fees

None of the fee schedules we read charges for verification itself, but limits follow verification level, and a limit can force you into a more expensive route: for example, Luno’s Level 1 allows only R15,000 of lifetime deposits, so a larger purchase requires full verification first. Our KYC guide lists each platform’s documents and limits.

Risks

Fee schedules change without notice: VALR last edited its charges article on 21 September 2026 and Luno its fees article on 29 September 2026, as shown when we re-read them on 3 October 2026. Percentages are small on large amounts and large on small ones, and each layer is paid whether the asset rises or falls. Nothing here is financial advice; confirm every figure on the platform before you trade.

Next steps

Deposit fees differ by bank as well as by platform: the bank-by-bank guide and the Capitec guide show which rail each bank can use and what it costs before any trade.

Read the full schedules in VALR fees explained and Luno fees explained, compare the two side by side in VALR vs Luno, or filter platforms by deposit method in the exchange finder. For platforms ranked by situation, see best crypto exchanges in South Africa, and for the total cost of a bitcoin purchase at four amounts, the cheapest way to buy bitcoin in South Africa.