VALR.com will offer ether-rand trading from next week as the cryptocurrency exchange, backed by former First National Bank CEO Michael Jordaan, ramps up its efforts to tackle Naspers-backed market leader Luno.
VALR, co-founded by former Rand Merchant Bank executive Farzam Ehsani, said on Wednesday that users will be able to buy ether, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain, directly with rand.
“Customers can already start funding their accounts with ETH and ZAR,” it said.
Live trading will start on the morning of 11 July.
VALR, which offers access to 50 cryptocurrencies, launched bitcoin-rand trading last month and has facilitated R170-million worth of bitcoin trades in the last three weeks, according to Ehsani. He said, without citing a source, that VALR is already handling 5% of South Africa’s 24-hour trading volume in bitcoin-rand trading.
Watch this recent TechCentral interview with VALR CEO Ehsani:
VALR pays market makers — customers that provide liquidity to its platform — 0.1% of their total trade value, bringing a “negative fee” structure to the market. Market takers — customers who execute trades immediately — are charged 0.2%.
VALR is backed by Jordaan and US-based Bittrex, a global crypto exchange. It raised R20-million last year in its first round of funding.
VALR plans to launch more cryptocurrency-rand trading pairs in the near future, Ehsani said. — (c) 2019 NewsCentral Media