Global heavyweight Bitget brings its muscle to SA

Bitget, ranked as one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, is the latest entrant to the SA market.

It’s also one of the leading Web3 companies in the world – the next iteration of the internet allowing for transactions and investment in the digital world.

With soccer legend Lionel Messi as its brand ambassador and its sponsorship of La Liga, Juventas and MotoGP, Bitget has grown its user base to more than 100 million since forming in 2018.

Continuing with the sports theme, the company recently announced its sponsorship of Wynberg Boys 1st Team rugby.

Swipe your crypto card to pay or draw cash

Bitget brings considerable muscle to SA, with some products entirely new to the local market, such as a credit card linked to your crypto wallet that allows you to spend anywhere – not just at merchants that accept bitcoin.

There’s a blue card for day-to-day use and a black one for VIPs, accepted at more than 50 million merchants worldwide in about 180 countries.

You can also withdraw cash from ATMs displaying the Visa logo using Bitget cards.

There are no sign-up or annual fees for these cards, with forex charges among the lowest in the market.

Returns

Bitget also offers some mouth-watering returns on your crypto – up to 10% annually on bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), and between 2.2% and 15% for US dollar-pegged stablecoins like Tether and USDC.

Bitget also offers launch pools where investors get a front-row seat to highly anticipated crypto projects before they are listed on the exchange.

For those accustomed to the traditional finance space, returns like these may seem too good to be true, but they’re not. Bitget holds nearly double its user assets in reserve in the form of BTC, ETH and stablecoins Tether and USDC, alongside a $700 million (R12.4 billion) protection fund.

What to expect?

Bitget enters the SA market with more than 800 crypto pairs, which should be of interest to crypto enthusiasts keen to arbitrage between markets or those looking for more exotic offerings, such as its in-house coin, BGB.

The exchange is licensed in SA as a Crypto Asset Service Provider by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority.

Bitget’s arrival in SA may be a lifeline for smaller exchanges looking to ramp up trading volumes.

It allows these exchanges to link to Bitget’s ‘staking’ (yield earning), futures and other products via APIs (application programming interfaces) and white label them as their own.

“We have APIs that can integrate into smaller exchanges so they can expand their product offering to their clients,” says Callan Richardson, Bitget’s head of growth for Africa.

“This means these exchanges can offer futures, yield-earning products, and they can in fact custom-build their own exchange. This helps smaller exchanges grow their own product range and grow their revenue base.”

There’s also opportunity for smaller exchanges to white-label Bitget’s futures products and offer these to their clients.

The advantage of futures – due to relatively small margin requirements – is that it does not require a large amount of capital to grow trading volumes, unlike spot trading which is capital-intensive.

Africa focus

Bitget has built a core following across Africa, starting with Nigeria, Kenya and now SA.

Not surprisingly, there is huge demand for digital payments solutions across the continent.

“We’ve been successful in assisting payment companies in Africa that offer the top 10-20 coins and stablecoins, mainly to facilitate local and cross-border payments,” says Richardson.

“We see massive potential for this going forward.”

Originally from Durban, Richardson spent several years in the UK and UAE working in financial services for institutions such as BNP Paribas, where he dealt with Middle East sovereign wealth clients, before moving to National Bank of Abu Dhabi, then Standard Chartered, which transferred him to SA in 2017. He later worked for TMF as head of business development before joining Bitget.

Coming from a traditional finance background with a keen interest in digital assets, Richardson has a nuanced view of where the world of finance is headed.

“In the early days, everyone looked at crypto as a get-rich scheme. Now that mindset is changing. We have a more sophisticated investor out there who sees crypto as an alternative asset class with different ways to grow your investments.

“That’s the market that we are feeding into.”

Web3, homing in on privacy and security

Another key part of the business is Web3 – which is built on technologies such as blockchain, smart contracts, and ‘decentralised applications’ or dApps.

Unlike Web1 (read-only pages) and Web2 (centralised platforms like Google and Facebook), Web3 aims to shift control from centralised entities to users where privacy and security are paramount.

Bitget is one of the world leaders in the development of Web3 projects.

For example, the Bitget Wallet positioned Bitget as a leader in decentralised finance (DeFi) and Web3 adoption as it supports more than 100 blockchains and 20 000 tokens and dApps.

Another Bitget initiative is Blockchain4Youth where it provides education to young people on the basics of blockchain technology and the opportunities that exist for students looking to enter the tech space after studies.

“We also have Blockchain4Her which is backed by our Ventures arm and invests in female-run fintechs and blockchain startups,” says Richardson.

Brought to you by Bitget.

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