{"id":235146,"date":"2026-10-02T18:12:28","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T18:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=235146"},"modified":"2026-10-02T18:12:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T18:12:28","slug":"south-africas-absa-becomes-first-bank-on-the-continent-to-custody-bitcoin-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/?p=235146","title":{"rendered":"South Africa\u2019s Absa Becomes First Bank on the Continent to Custody Bitcoin: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s Absa Becomes First Bank on the Continent to Custody Bitcoin: Report<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

South African bank Absa has become the first African lender to custody bitcoin, according to reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As reported<\/a> first by Bloomberg on Friday, the Johannesburg-based lender will serve institutional clients, mostly by custodying bitcoin \u2014 but other digital assets will also be a part of the service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Banks worldwide are integrating or offering bitcoin-related products and services. A number of U.S. and European banks have started offering crypto-related services by custodying assets for institutions.<\/p>\n

\n

JUST IN: Absa has become the first African bank to offer Bitcoin custody pic.twitter.com\/JaDza3S7Ez<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) October 2, 2026<\/a>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Rob Downes, head of digital assets at Absa\u2019s corporate and investment banking unit, was quoted saying that while bitcoin was the biggest asset the bank would custody, others would follow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Absa did not immediately respond to questions from Bitcoin Magazine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The African continent has a large crypto-native base, with data firms frequently highlighting the high adoption \u2014 particularly in countries where currencies have been significantly debased.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Chainalysis\u2019s 2025 report<\/a>, South Africa\u2019s $36.0 billion in on-chain value made it second in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria alone received $92.1 billion, nearly three times the total of second-place South Africa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the global index, South Africa<\/a> ranked 30th for crypto adoption.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The character of its market is different from Nigeria<\/a>\u2018s: it\u2019s more institutional, with regulatory clarity resulting in hundreds of licenses being issued to VASPs and attracting professional investors and traditional finance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

BNY Mellon in 2022 became<\/a> the first major U.S. bank to offer digital asset custody services. And this month, German multinational Deutsche Bank said<\/a> it would debut a bitcoin custody service for European corporate and institutional clients later in 2026.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This post South Africa\u2019s Absa Becomes First Bank on the Continent to Custody Bitcoin: Report<\/a> first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine<\/a> and is written by Mathew Di Salvo<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine South Africa\u2019s Absa Becomes First Bank on the Continent to Custody Bitcoin: Report South African bank Absa has become the first African lender to custody bitcoin, according to reports.\u00a0 As reported first by Bloomberg on Friday, the Johannesburg-based lender will serve institutional clients, mostly by custodying bitcoin \u2014 but other digital assets will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":235147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235146"}],"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=235146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/235147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=235146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=235146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=235146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}