FSCA-licensed crypto exchanges in South Africa

Direct answer

Four of the exchanges in our South Africa data set appear in the Financial Sector Conduct Authority’s list of licensed crypto asset service providers (CASPs) dated December 2025: VALR (Pty) Ltd (FSP 53308), Luno (Pty) Ltd (FSP 53314), AltCoin Trader (Pty) Ltd (FSP 53614) and Ovex (Pty) Limited (FSP 53922). Binance does not appear and states on its own South Africa page that its licence application is in process. Kraken does not appear and lists no South African authorisation on its licensing page. Bybit has not been researched. A licence means the FSCA has authorised that legal entity to provide financial services in crypto assets and supervises its conduct; it does not insure your balance or make the assets it sells safe.

The FSCA list we read is dated December 2025 and is the newest we could retrieve; the regulator’s April 2026 update gives totals but names no providers.

Who this guide is for

Anyone who has seen “FSCA-licensed” or “regulated” on a crypto platform’s home page and wants to check the claim against the regulator’s own record, and anyone deciding whether an unlicensed platform’s lower fee is worth the difference.

What the licence is

The FSCA licenses CASPs as financial services providers under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act. Its December 2025 press release states that, as at 12 December 2025, it had received 512 CASP licence applications, approved 300 and declined 14; its 15 April 2026 release updates this to 533 received, 310 approved, 17 declined and 124 withdrawn as at 31 March 2026, and repeats that any person conducting CASP activities without a licence is subject to enforcement action. The licence is recorded against a legal entity with an FSP number, a licence category and a list of authorised activities: Category I covers advice and intermediary services, and Category II adds discretionary investment management. Both releases note that the FSCA’s powers are limited to those services and that the South African Reserve Bank does not recognise crypto assets as currency.

Separately, licensed platforms are accountable institutions under the FIC Act and must verify their clients; the FSCA’s December 2025 release confirms it supervises their anti-money-laundering controls. That is why every licensed platform asks for identity documents, which our KYC guide explains.

The verified entries

The December 2025 list is a 36-page PDF whose Section A lists licensed CASPs by number, FSP number, legal name, category and authorised activities. The four platforms below were found in that section, and each also publishes the same FSP number on its own site:

• VALR (Pty) Ltd, entry 270, FSP 53308, Category I & II (advice, intermediary services, investment management). South African customers contract with VALR (Pty) Ltd, registration 2018/211274/07. VALR states that its futures product is provided by group entity VALR DAM (Pty) Ltd under FSP 54897; we did not find that number in the list, so it rests on VALR’s statement.
• Luno (Pty) Ltd, entry 166, FSP 53314, Category I & II. Luno’s licences page adds that it is a registered credit provider (NCRCP22123) and is registered with the Financial Intelligence Centre under AI/130605/00024.
• AltCoin Trader (Pty) Ltd, entry 15, FSP 53614, Category I & II. The list prints the name with a space; the company’s FAIS disclosure document and terms use the registration number 2015/418624/07, which is the safer thing to match.
• Ovex (Pty) Limited, entry 192, FSP 53922, Category I (intermediary services). Ovex’s general terms name Ovex (Pty) Ltd (2018/218598/07) as the entity for South African and CMA residents and state that it is a juristic representative of Ovex FSP (Pty) Ltd.

Platforms not on the list

Binance does not appear anywhere in the December 2025 list. Its South Africa page says it “operates in South Africa in compliance with local financial regulations and is actively engaged in South Africa’s Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) licensing process”, and its support pages state that services are provided by Binance ADGM entities regulated in Abu Dhabi (Nest Services Limited, with Nest Clearing and Custody Limited and Nest Trading Limited from 5 January 2026). We record its status as pending. Whether the application has since been approved is an open question, because the April 2026 release names no providers.

Kraken does not appear under Kraken, Payward or Crypto Facilities, and Kraken’s licensing page lists no South African authorisation. Kraken also has no ZAR deposit or withdrawal rail, so the licence question is academic for most South Africans.

Bybit was not researched for this site; its entity, licence, rails and fees are unknown until we read them on official pages.

How to check a platform yourself

1. Find the platform’s own legal or disclosure page and note the exact legal entity name, company registration number and FSP number. A brand name is not enough; the licence belongs to a company.
2. Open the FSCA’s regulated-entities pages and the latest “list of licensed crypto asset service providers” PDF, and search for the FSP number. Match the number and the registration or legal name, not just the brand, because spellings differ (AltCoin Trader versus AltCoinTrader).
3. Read Sections C and D of the list as well as Section A: they record licences that have lapsed or been provisionally withdrawn.
4. Check the date of the list you are reading. Approvals continue (300 in December 2025, 310 by March 2026), so a platform absent from an older list may appear on a newer one, and a platform present may have lost its licence since.
5. Treat “application in process”, “regulated elsewhere” or a licence held by a different group company as not licensed in South Africa for the service you are using.

What a licence does and does not do

A licence tells you the entity is authorised, supervised for conduct, and required to verify clients and keep records. It does not tell you that the coins it sells are safe, that the platform cannot fail, that your balance is insured, or that the price you pay is fair. Fees at licensed platforms range from 0 % on Ovex’s quoted trades to 0.60 % taker at Luno and AltCoinTrader, and the cheapest headline rate on our pages, Binance’s 0.10 %, belongs to a platform that is not on the list. The licence is the first filter in our guide to choosing an exchange, not the last.

Availability limitations

All four licensed platforms pay rand only to a South African bank account in the account holder’s own name, and Ovex requires full verification before any deposit. Binance’s South African users contract with offshore entities, and which of its products beyond spot, Earn and P2P are open to South Africans is not confirmed on an official page.

Risks

Licence status is a dated fact: the list we read is from December 2025 and the FSCA can withdraw or suspend a licence. A licensed entity can still change its terms, pause withdrawals or fail, and crypto asset prices are volatile regardless of who sells them. Phishing sites copy licence badges, so check the regulator’s document, not a logo. Nothing here is legal or financial advice.

Next steps

Compare the four licensed platforms on fees and rails in best crypto exchanges in South Africa, or filter by licence status in the exchange finder.