VALR review

A standard account pays a maker fee of 0% and a taker fee of 0.1%, so repeated trades stay cheap. Crypto withdrawals are billed at the network rate, and rand withdrawals cost nothing above the stated threshold: Network-dependent for crypto; free ZAR above 100 ZAR. Fees apply per trade, so the real cost depends on how often you place orders.

VALR is licensed by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority in South Africa: Financial Sector Conduct Authority. It publishes proof of reserves, which lets customers check the assets the exchange holds, and it has traded from South Africa since 2018. That speaks to the exchange's own standing, not to your trading losses.

The exchange lists 35 coins for spot trading and also offers derivatives, so you can take a position without holding the coin. Staking is available on holdings through the custodial account: custodial and staking. The range is narrower than the larger platforms, so check a coin is listed before you plan around it.

Fiat deposits run by card, bank transfer and SEPA: card, bank and sepa. Rand transfers suit a South African account, while card funding is the quicker route for people funding from abroad. The money lands in the same custodial account you trade from, so there is no separate self-custody wallet to set up: custodial and staking.

Crypto withdrawals are charged at the rate of the network you choose, and rand withdrawals cost nothing above the stated threshold: Network-dependent for crypto; free ZAR above 100 ZAR. Because the account is custodial, coins are held by the exchange rather than in a wallet you control, so treat the exchange as the counterparty for your balance.

Support runs through help centre only, so answers come in written form rather than a live chat or a phone line. That suits traders who are comfortable searching articles at odd hours. It is thinner than providers offering email, chat and phone together, so keep your own records of trades and withdrawals.

Across the comparison, the median retail loss is 70.15%, with provider figures running as low as 40.3% and as high as 88%. These numbers cover the wider market rather than VALR alone, so read them as a warning about volatility, fees and leverage, not a forecast.

For a first account, a maker fee of 0% keeps small test trades cheap, and the help centre makes the process self-serve. The smaller listing of 35 coins is the trade-off: beginners who want a long tail of altcoins will find more elsewhere.