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Absa Group Ltd. has become the first bank in Africa to offer institutional digital-asset custody services as it moves to tap South Africa’s crypto market, where assets held by the three largest licensed service providers were valued at about $1.5 billion at the end of 2024.
The Johannesburg-headquartered lender launched the service in South Africa for institutional clients, including asset managers, corporates and non-bank financial institutions.
The launch gives Absa a foothold in the continent’s growing digital-asset economy, with the bank also considering extending the custody service to other African markets where it operates, subject to regulatory approvals.
Absa plans crypto custody expansion
Absa also plans to widen access to the custody product beyond its initial institutional customer base in South Africa while pursuing opportunities to introduce the service in other African countries where the banking group operates. Any expansion into those markets will be subject to regulatory approvals.
- “We expect to extend this to other client segments in South Africa in due course, and are actively working on bringing the solution to some of our other African presence countries in line with regulatory approvals required,” Downes said.
Digital-asset custody allows a regulated financial institution to securely hold and administer crypto assets on behalf of customers. Rather than institutions managing the cryptographic keys required to access their holdings themselves, the custodian provides infrastructure for safeguarding assets, processing transfers and managing related administrative functions.
- “Bitcoin is the predominant asset in custody,” Downes said, adding that the bank is working with clients on “other crypto assets they would like to be custodied in South Africa.”
Absa secured regulatory approval in South Africa before introducing the service, which currently supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP Ledger and the USDC stablecoin, with more assets potentially being added as institutional demand develops.
The South African Reserve Bank estimates that crypto assets held by Luno, VALR and Ovex more than doubled to R25.3 billion, approximately $1.5 billion, at the end of 2024 from less than R10 billion at the beginning of 2023.
Nigeria expands crypto regulation
South Africa is not the only major African economy developing clearer rules around digital assets as cryptocurrencies become increasingly used for investments, payments and cross-border transactions. Nigeria has also accelerated efforts to bring cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and other virtual assets under a more coordinated regulatory framework.
- In July, President Bola Tinubu signed the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026, creating a government-wide framework for supervising virtual assets and coordinating the responsibilities of regulators involved in the sector.
- Earlier in July, the Securities and Exchange Commission admitted seven additional companies into its Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme, bringing more virtual-asset businesses into its controlled regulatory environment.
- In early August, the Nigeria Revenue Service introduced guidelines under which medium and large companies earning profits from cryptocurrency and other virtual-asset transactions are liable to company income tax of 30% on taxable profits from such activities.
The tax guidelines also impose registration, reporting, record-keeping and other compliance requirements on participants in Nigeria’s virtual-asset ecosystem.
The regulatory initiatives are intended to strengthen oversight of the growing sector while bringing more participants under defined supervisory and tax requirements.
Absa earnings rise 8%
Absa is one of Africa’s largest diversified financial services groups, with its latest supplied financial results showing continued growth in the first half of 2026. For the six months ended June 30, 2026, the Group reported a 4% increase in revenue to R58.8 billion.
- Pre-provision profit increased 4% to R27.4 billion, while credit impairments declined by 1% to R7.1 billion.
- Headline earnings rose 8% to R12.8 billion during the period.
- Absa has banking operations in South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, alongside representative offices in Nigeria and Namibia.
- In Nigeria, it operates through entities including Absa Representative Office Nigeria Limited, Absa Capital Markets Nigeria Limited and Absa Securities Nigeria Limited, providing services including trade finance, investment banking and capital-market products.
The Group has previously identified Nigeria as an important part of its broader African strategy, although it has favoured gradual, organic expansion focused largely on corporate and investment banking rather than acquiring a conventional retail bank.
