In South Africa, Conexus settles domestically, in rand, into a South African bank account. We do not move money offshore, we do not repatriate value into South Africa through crypto, and we do not act as a remittance or payment service in any market. This page explains why, in the regulator’s own terms.
Buying a crypto asset in South Africa in order to externalise capital contravenes the Exchange Control Regulations and is a criminal offence. Value cannot be repatriated into South Africa through crypto under the allowances. The Financial Surveillance Department of the South African Reserve Bank will not approve a cross-border transfer for the purpose of purchasing crypto assets. If that is what you are looking for, we will decline, and we will tell you why rather than simply going quiet.
This page sets out the South African position specifically. South Africa is the market this desk has an office in, and its exchange control regime is among the strictest anywhere — so it is written out in full here rather than summarised.
This page used to promise more than it should have. Here is the accurate version. Conexus is an over-the-counter desk whose South African office is in Cape Town. In this market it buys crypto assets for rand and sells crypto assets for rand, and it settles rand into a South African bank account in the client’s own name. Every leg of the South African service is domestic.
People arrive at this desk from abroad all the time, and we can help most of them. Someone who relocates to South Africa already holding a crypto asset, and now needs rand to live on, is doing something entirely ordinary: they hold an asset and they sell it. What they are not doing — and what we will not present as what they are doing — is transferring money into South Africa. The asset was already theirs before they landed. The sale happens here.
The distinction sounds academic until it is tested. Exchange control looks at the substance of an arrangement, not the wording on a website. A desk that markets itself as a way to "get funds into" or "get funds out of" South Africa using crypto is describing conduct the regulator has explicitly addressed, and the consequences fall on the client as well as the desk.
The same discipline applies everywhere else. Conexus is an over-the-counter desk rather than a South African exchange, and the corridor you want to settle in, the rail it would run on and its legal position are established at the enquiry stage, before a quote is given. Where the desk cannot do something lawfully in your market, that is the answer you get in the first message rather than the fifth.
You hold BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC or another asset we quote. We buy it for rand at a firm agreed rate and settle to your South African bank account. Where the asset came from is a due diligence question, and we will ask it, but the transaction itself is a domestic exchange.
EFT, RTC or PayShap to a South African account in the name of the person or company we onboarded. Never to a third party, never in cash, never offshore.
A deal confirmation with the date, asset, network, quantity, rate, fee and net rand amount, plus the on-chain and bank references. If your bank, your accountant or SARS asks what a credit is, the answer is one document long.
If what you need is a cross-border transfer, an allowance application or a remittance, we will say so and point you at your own Authorised Dealer. We would rather lose the trade than take it on a false description.
We do not sell you a crypto asset to be sent to a wallet abroad in order to get capital out of South Africa. This is the specific conduct the Reserve Bank has addressed, and it is a criminal offence under the Exchange Control Regulations.
Value cannot be brought into South Africa through crypto under the allowances. We are not a route around that, and any desk claiming otherwise is describing something the regulator has ruled out.
We are not a money transfer operator, not an Authorised Dealer and not an Authorised Dealer in foreign exchange with limited authority. We cannot receive a payment from abroad on your behalf, and a crypto asset is not a payment instrument in South African law.
Your allowances, your tax residency status and your Approval for International Transfer are matters for your own bank and your own advisers. We will describe the published position; we will not apply it to your circumstances.
The Financial Surveillance Department of the South African Reserve Bank administers the Exchange Control Regulations. Its published position on crypto assets has four elements, and they matter more than anything a desk can tell you.
We set this out not to lecture, but because it is rarely stated in full anywhere a person would actually look. A client who knows the position asks us the right questions instead of the ones nobody can answer yes to.
These figures come up in almost every conversation, so here they are — with the point that they are administered by your bank, not by us.
R2 million per calendar year for a South African resident individual aged 18 or over, raised from R1 million by Exchange Control Circular 6/2026 of 8 April 2026. It does not require a tax clearance, but it is processed through an Authorised Dealer, and it may not be used for a purpose FinSurv has excluded.
R10 million per calendar year, over and above the single discretionary allowance, and it requires a SARS Tax Compliance Status PIN obtained in advance. Again: applied for through your own bank, with SARS, and not through this desk.
Allowances, tax compliance status, the recording of introduced funds and any application to FinSurv all sit with the commercial bank that holds your account. They have the mandate and the systems. Go to them first, and go before you commit to anything.
Figures are current as at the last update of this page and are set by the South African Reserve Bank, not by us. Confirm them with your own bank before relying on them.
On 3 August 2026 the South African Reserve Bank and National Treasury published a draft Crypto Assets Manual for cross-border activities, open for public comment until 30 September 2026. It is a consultation document. It is not in force, it may change materially before it is, and nothing on this page should be read as a description of a future regime. We are watching it closely, because a clear framework for cross-border crypto activity would be good for everyone in this market. Until it is finalised, the position set out above is the one that applies.
| What the client asks | What actually happens |
|---|---|
| "I moved here from abroad and hold USDT. Can you give me rand?" | Yes. This is an ordinary domestic exchange. You are onboarded, the source of the asset is documented, a trader quotes a firm rate and rand settles to your South African account. Your own tax position on the disposal is between you and a tax practitioner. |
| "Can I buy Bitcoin here and send it to my wallet overseas to get money out?" | No, and we will decline. Buying crypto in South Africa in order to externalise capital contravenes the Exchange Control Regulations and is a criminal offence. This is not a compliance preference; it is the published position. |
| "My family abroad will send me USDT. Can you receive it and pay me rand?" | We do not act as a remittance service and value cannot be repatriated under the allowances through crypto. A transfer from a third party abroad is also a third-party transaction, which we do not accept in either direction. Use your bank. |
| "Can I use my R2 million allowance to buy crypto offshore?" | FinSurv will not approve a cross-border transfer for the purpose of purchasing crypto assets. Your Authorised Dealer administers your allowance and will tell you what it may be used for. We cannot authorise, process or advise on it. |
No. We settle in rand into a South African bank account and nothing else. We are not an Authorised Dealer, we do not hold an exchange control mandate, and we do not participate in any arrangement whose purpose is to move value out of South Africa. Cross-border transfers belong with the commercial bank that holds your account.
The Reserve Bank's published position is unambiguous: buying crypto assets in South Africa in order to externalise capital contravenes the Exchange Control Regulations and is a criminal offence. The test is the purpose of the purchase. We are not in a position to assess your intention for you, and we will not participate in a transaction described to us in those terms. Take the question to your Authorised Dealer and, if needed, to an attorney.
Yes, and this is the most common reason people reach this page. Selling an asset you already hold is a domestic exchange. You will be onboarded fully, we will ask how and when the asset was acquired, and rand settles to your South African account in your own name. Whether the disposal has a South African tax consequence depends on your residency and your facts — take that to a registered tax practitioner. See private clients.
We do not accept transfers from third parties, and an offshore entity paying a South African client through this desk raises exactly the cross-border questions we cannot answer. Where a South African company is itself paid in stablecoins by a customer, and the crypto asset arrives in the company's own wallet, the conversion is a domestic exchange and we can do it — see business and treasury. The invoicing and exchange control treatment of the underlying export is between the company, its bank and its auditors.
R2 million per calendar year for a resident individual aged 18 or over, raised from R1 million by Exchange Control Circular 6/2026 of 8 April 2026. The foreign capital allowance is a further R10 million per calendar year and requires a SARS Tax Compliance Status PIN. Both are administered by your own Authorised Dealer. Note that FinSurv will not approve a cross-border transfer for the purpose of purchasing crypto assets.
The South African Reserve Bank and National Treasury published a draft Crypto Assets Manual for cross-border activities on 3 August 2026, open for comment until 30 September 2026. It is a draft consultation document. It is not law, it is not in force, and it may change before it is finalised. Until then the existing position applies, and we will not describe a proposed rule as though it were current.
We report what the law requires of any accountable institution: cash transactions above R49,999.99 under section 28, and suspicious and unusual transactions under section 29, which has no threshold and a fifteen-day deadline excluding weekends and public holidays. Transfer information travels with every crypto asset transfer under FIC Directive 9 of 2024, in force since 30 April 2025 with no minimum threshold. A request to structure a transaction so that it avoids these duties is itself the kind of thing section 29 exists for.
Relocation, personal holdings and estates, with a trader you can meet in Cape Town.
For companies paid in stablecoins: onboarding, the VAT position and audit documentation.
The FIC Act duties and the reporting obligations that apply to every trade the desk does.
Tell a trader what you hold and what you need in rand. If the answer involves a cross-border leg, we will say so in the first message rather than the fifth.