‘After South Africa, A Lot of Our Users Are Coming from Kenya,’ Says VALR, South Africa’s Leading Crypto Exchange

VALR, the South African leading crypto exchange in volumes, sat down for an exclusive with the Founder of BitKE to talk about the Kenyan market and where it is headed.

In the discussion, Ben Caselin, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of VALR, shared what the exchange has seen in terms of interest for its services over the last year.

According to Ben, VALR has seen more Kenyan users outside South Africa than any other market in Africa which opened up a discussion on why that is the case and why the Kenyan market is ripe for more opportunities for VALR to grow.

In a press release shared with BitKE in November 2024, VALR said it doubled its user base by adding 500,000 users to its platform in 2024 alone, a marked increase from the initial 500,000 who joined during the first 5 and a half years since VALR’s founding in 2018 This includes over 1,100 institutional and corporate clients. The proportion of international users has grown and now more than 1 in 4 VALR customers comes from outside South Africa’s borders.

VALR holds Category 1&2 licenses from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) of South Africa as a Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP).

VALR recently partnered with the MoonPay, the global leader in crypto payments, to enable integration to streamline fiat on-and off-ramps for users in over 180 countries.

This partnership enables VALR to support 34 fiat currencies, including:

• KES (Kenyan Shilling)
• NGN (Nigerian Naira)
• IDR (Indonesian Rupiah)
• TRY (Turkish Lira)
• BRL (Brazilian Real), and
• TWD (Taiwan Dollar),

across payment methods such as Credit and Debit Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Venmo.

This discussion comes at a time when Kenya is preparing to pass crypto regulation that will see crypto exchanges enter this market and provide their services. Part of that process involves setting up the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) that will oversee the industry’s activities.

Watch the full interview below:

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