Warren Wheatley has resigned as CEO and as an employee of Africa Bitcoin Corporation with effect from 21 September, severing his last remaining ties to the JSE-listed company he founded.
The company said in an investor statement on Tuesday morning that the board had accepted the resignation. Wheatley had been on precautionary leave from the role since 31 August, the day he also resigned as a director, after the Financial Sector Conduct Authority debarred him for 20 years.
Stafford Masie, Google’s first country manager in South Africa, continues as interim CEO while the board runs a process to appoint a permanent successor.
The precautionary leave had been imposed for an initial period of one month, subject to board review. Wheatley resigned before that month had run.
The FSCA published its findings on 4 September. It found that between 5 and 8 September 2022, Wheatley, then CEO of forerunner Altvest Capital, acted in concert with his wife, Tatum Keshwar-Wheatley, and with chief investment officer Akshay Karan, in trading that created an artificially inflated share price, a false or deceptive appearance of demand, supply or trading activity in Altvest shares, or both. The regulator found the parties contravened section 80(1)(a) of the Financial Markets Act.
It imposed an administrative penalty of R5-million on Wheatley and WGW Capital jointly and severally, R3-million on Keshwar-Wheatley and Tatum Keshwar Investments, and R2-million on Karan. All three were debarred for 20 years.
Bitcoin treasury
All three dispute the findings and have said they intend to apply to the Financial Services Tribunal for reconsideration and suspension of the orders. Tuesday’s announcement said Wheatley’s reconsideration and related proceedings before the tribunal are personal to him and continue independently of the company.
The company gave no reason for the resignation and disclosed no terms.
Africa Bitcoin Corporation is the same legal entity as Altvest Capital, renamed. Altvest bought a single bitcoin in February 2025, describing the purchase as a systems test, and became the first listed company in Africa to adopt bitcoin as a primary treasury reserve asset. It proposed the name change in September that year, setting out plans to raise up to US$210-million to buy the asset and explicitly modelling itself on Michael Saylor’s Strategy. It moved from AltX to the JSE main board in May.
The trading the FSCA investigated took place about two-and-a-half years before the first of those steps.
The company held 5.5331 bitcoin after its most recent disclosed purchase, in May. Its shares are thinly traded, leaving the price exposed to sharp moves on small volumes. — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
