Cryptocurrency payments network MoneyBadger has released a new report showing that South Africans are increasingly using Bitcoin and stablecoins in everyday spending, not just as a trading asset.
Cryptocurrency payments network MoneyBadger has published a new report showing that South Africans are increasingly using Bitcoin and stablecoins in everyday spending, not just as a trading asset.
MoneyBadger’s How South Africans Use Bitcoin and Crypto as Money report tracked completed transactions in the first half of 2026 across a merchant footprint of nearly 700,000 locations.
“Plenty is written about Bitcoin and crypto in South Africa. Almost all of it measures trading on exchanges, or money moving across borders.
Almost none of it is about people paying for things. This report answers that, from the payment rails themselves: real transactions at real South African merchants, made through the MoneyBadger network.
The company first launched QR-based in-store crypto payments at Pick n Pay stores in 2023. Since then, over 50,000 active merchants have been added to its network.
MoneyBadger’s analysis of payment data showed a 95% increase in crypto and stablecoin payment volumes in H1 2026 compared to H1 2025.
It also recorded a 176% increase in the rand values of these payments. Momentum was especially strong in the last quarter, with an increase of 206% in rand value in Q2 2026 compared to Q2 2025.
The number of merchants that received crypto payments also surged 51-fold — from 57 in August 2025 to 2,927 in August 2026.
That was primarily due to payment service providers like Ozow, Peach Payments, and Zapper enabling crypto payments through the MoneyBadger network in September 2025.
Regarding the nature of the spending, MoneyBadger found that half of all payments were for purchases under R200, while 87% were valued under R1,000.
The payment process was also proving fast and seamless. Median scan-to-paid time was eight seconds at high-volume tills, while the longest time at other payment points was 35 seconds.
Many customers also made recurring purchases. 34% to 44% of a major custodial wallet’s users who made a purchase at least once in a quarter would do so again.
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MoneyBadger said the data showed that crypto spending in South Africa was increasingly behaving like ordinary money.
Customers were using the digital currency to buy small, everyday baskets, spread across the whole month, repeated quarter after quarter, at thousands of merchants, both in-store and online.
“What began as Bitcoin at a supermarket till is becoming a mix of Bitcoin and stablecoins across the economy,” it said.
“The growth has outlasted the Bitcoin circular economies and wallet/merchant promotions that kick-started it.”
One noteworthy change in spending patterns was that e-commerce payment values surpassed in-store spending for the first time. In the second quarter of 2025, 97% of the value was paid in-store.
In the same period in 2026, the proportion of in-store purchases with digital currency payments had declined to 29%, while online shopping purchases accounted for 48% of transaction values.
Another significant shift was a radical increase in the use of stablecoins, including USDT and the ZAR Universal Network (ZARU).
ZARU was launched in February 2026 by a consortium consisting of cryptocurrency exchange Luno, life insurer Sanlam, trading platform EasyEquities, and technology firm Lesaka.
The coin is backed by Sanlam with Standard Bank as the banker. It is supported by rand cash, deposits and government bonds.
Within six months of its debut, it accounted for 7.7% of all value spent and 98% of rand-stablecoin value on the MoneyBadger network.
Between June and July 2026 alone, the value of transactions made with the ZARU stablecoin increased by 61%.
MoneyBadger argued that rand stablecoins posed a genuine challenge to card rails, interchange fees, and slow settlements in South African payments.
Other noteworthy trends from the report included self-custody Lightning payments growing every year in rand terms.
Custodial wallets, including exchange apps like Luno, VALR, and Binance, handled about two-thirds to three-quarters of the value.
MoneyBadger also compiled a list of the top five Pick n Pay stores where crypto payments were the most popular.
Pick n Pay’s On Nicol store in Bryanston in Johannesburg came out on top, followed by Pick n Pay Gardens in Cape Town, and Langeberg Mall in Mossel Bay.
