The recent refusal by the South African Reserve Bank to recognize cryptocurrencies as a legitimate financial instrument hasn’t done anything to derail adoption of blockchain technology in the country.
A report from South African media outlet BusinessTech outlines plans by Sygnia Asset Management to launch their own exchange, SigniaCoin, later this year.
BusinessTech spoke to Sygnia CEO Magda Wierzycka who confirmed the plans for the third quarter of 2018.
We have spent the past six months actively researching a number of new strategic initiatives that will position Sygnia for the evolving digital future.”
In the past Wierzycka has been outspoken in her criticism of political corruption and ‘state capture’ in the country, and expressed her optimism in the rapidly evolving pace of the cryptocurrency market, both locally and internationally.
She believes Sygnia is well-positioned to become a major financial institute that embraces cryptocurrency and offers a secure trading platform for investors. They recognize the South African Revenue Services approach to taxing cryptocurrency and are basing their policies and processes on the existing regulatory framework applicable to exchanges in New York.
Sygnia will provide investors the ability to both hold and trade cryptocurrencies within their accounts. Following on similar systems implemented by services like Circle Invest, they will also provide simplified methods for investors to diversify their portfolios across a number of crypto-assets.
Crypto-mania seems to be sweeping South Africa lately, despite attempts by the government and traditional institutes to restrict and regulate it. A recent survey by popular tech news outlet MyBroadband indicates that as much as 47 percent of South Africans have future plans to invest in digital assets.
Image From Shutterstock
