MoneyBadger\u2019s report reveals South Africa\u2019s crypto payments grew 176% in rand value during H1\u00a02026.Bitcoin\u2019s share of that spending fell from 94% in 2023 to just 40% in\u00a02026.Rand-backed stablecoins, led by ZARU, jumped from 2% to 44% of crypto payment value in three\u00a0years.Half of all crypto payments are under R200, spread across the month rather than clustered on\u00a0payday.Cashback promotions boosted spending up to 35 times normal levels. After promotions ended, spend settled at 7\u20139 times the\u00a0baselineMost crypto payments still run through custodial wallets rather than self-custody.<\/p>\n
MoneyBadger, the payments network behind Bitcoin acceptance at Pick n Pay, says crypto payment value across its network grew 176% in the first half of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025. The numbers were included in their August 2026 report titled \u201cHow South Africans Use Bitcoin and Crypto as\u00a0Money.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report<\/a> indicates that in addition to this surge, there was a 95% rise in overall transaction volume. Meanwhile, the number of active paying merchants surged 51-fold to 2,927 as major payment service providers integrated the\u00a0rail.<\/p>\n These numbers indicate growth in the retail adoption of cryptocurrency across South Africa. More interestingly, however, is what the report says South Africans are paying\u00a0with.<\/p>\n When MoneyBadger launched in 2023, Bitcoin made up 94% of the value moving through its network. By 2026 year-to-date, that share had fallen to 40%. In its place, the use of stablecoins<\/a>, largely USDT and the rand-backed ZARU, grew from 2% to\u00a044%.<\/p>\n ZARU only launched in February 2026. It is backed by a consortium including Luno, Sanlam, and EasyEquities, with Standard Bank<\/a> acting as banker. Within six months, ZARU accounted for 98% of all rand-stablecoin value on the network. Between June and July 2026 alone, ZARU transaction value grew\u00a061%.<\/p>\n That shift changes what \u201ccrypto adoption\u201d actually means here. A South African paying for everyday goods and services with ZARU isn\u2019t taking on Bitcoin\u2019s price swings or speculating on an asset. What they\u2019re doing instead is moving ZARU, which is engineered to always equal 1 rand, over faster, cheaper rails than card networks.<\/p>\n The Bitcoin-at-the-till story that made headlines in 2023 has changed. The story is now about stablecoins, the digitisation of the rand, and USDT\u2019s dominance<\/a> on the continent.<\/p>\n The way South Africans are spending crypto has also changed, showing how these new rails work in everyday commerce.<\/p>\n MoneyBadger\u2019s data indicates that half of all payments are under R200. 87% are under R1,000. These numbers indicate South Africans are more likely to use these rails for things like food or clothing than for investment decisions.<\/p>\n The report also shows that payments are spread fairly evenly throughout the month, with a mild peak between the 11th and 13th. This is different from the usual spike at the end of the month, which is when salaried spending typically surges.<\/p>\n The report also noted that Pick n Pay\u2019s Langeberg Mall store in Mossel Bay ranks among the network\u2019s busiest thanks to a nearby township Bitcoin circular economy, Bitcoin\u00a0Ekasi.<\/p>\n All of these numbers together could be interpreted as crypto payment rails gaining traction where formal banking access is thinnest, not primarily among speculative investors in wealthier urban\u00a0nodes.<\/p>\n MoneyBadger also reports that 34% to 44% of users of a major custodial wallet return the following quarter. The report positions this number as evidence that crypto payments are becoming a genuine habit. While this is not completely false, one must consider other influences on payment behaviour.<\/p>\n The report indicates that during cashback promotion months, one exchange wallet\u2019s spend spiked to 35 times its early-2025 baseline. When those promotions ended, spending didn\u2019t return to normal; it settled at 7 to 9 times baseline. Those are not negligible numbers, but it could mean that a large share of current spending was driven by reward incentives rather than pure organic\u00a0demand.<\/p>\n Luno Pay also introduced new cashback incentives in mid-2026, paying up to 15% back on ZARU payments. In the same period, ZARU spending grew by 61%. This suggests even MoneyBadger\u2019s own partners are still leaning on incentives to keep usage climbing.<\/p>\n MoneyBadger describes self-custody wallets as \u201cthe purest form of financial inclusion.\u201d Yet its data show that custodial wallets, run by centralised exchanges like Luno, VALR, and Binance, have consistently handled roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of the value of payments since the network\u2019s first\u00a0year.<\/p>\n The self-custody ideal and the actual customer behaviour are pulling in different directions. South African users, it seems, still prioritise transaction speeds and lower costs over the allure of decentralised freedom.<\/p>\n None of this erases the growth in retail crypto adoption. It does change what banks, regulators<\/a>, and competing payment providers should be watching.<\/p>\n South Africa\u2019s crypto story might have started with Bitcoin, but it\u2019s no longer there. The competitive threat is a rand-denominated stablecoin that offers the familiarity of local currency, settles in seconds, and incurs a fraction of the cost. More importantly, this token could now be increasingly reaching users that traditional banking rails may be underserving.<\/p>\n Whether that growth holds once cashback incentives fade further is the question this report raises but doesn\u2019t yet\u00a0answer.<\/p>\n Originally published at <\/em>https:\/\/cryptoafrica.news<\/em><\/a> on September 3,\u00a02026.<\/em><\/p>\n SA Stablecoin Spending Rose From 2% to 44% in 3 Years \u2014 Crypto Africa<\/a> was originally published in Coinmonks<\/a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MoneyBadger\u2019s report reveals South Africa\u2019s crypto payments grew 176% in rand value during H1\u00a02026.Bitcoin\u2019s share of that spending fell from 94% in 2023 to just 40% in\u00a02026.Rand-backed stablecoins, led by ZARU, jumped from 2% to 44% of crypto payment value in three\u00a0years.Half of all crypto payments are under R200, spread across the month rather than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":224124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=224123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/224124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=224123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=224123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=224123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}From Bitcoin at the Till to Rand\u00a0On-Chain<\/h3>\n
What the Small-Basket, Mid-Month Pattern Really\u00a0Suggests<\/h3>\n
The Adoption Numbers Come With an\u00a0Asterisk<\/h3>\n
Why This\u00a0Matters<\/h3>\n