South Africa’s FNB Adds Crypto Trading Across Four Investment Products

First National Bank is adding crypto trading to four investment products, giving South African customers a way to buy five digital assets through the bank’s platform without transferring them to personal wallets.

The service, called Crypto Investing, supports Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP, Solana (SOL) and Tether’s USDT stablecoin. Customers can start trading with R10 using funds in their FNB accounts.

Crypto Investing is available through Share Saver, Share Builder, Share Investor and Share Zero. Trading is available 24 hours a day, but customers cannot transfer assets into or out of the service or use their holdings on open blockchain networks.

South African crypto exchange VALR powers the offering. FNB plans to add more crypto options and educational material.

FNB’s launch follows Discovery Bank’s 2025 integration with crypto platform Luno. South Africa had about 7.8 million registered crypto customers in 2025, up from roughly 6.6 million in 2024. Those figures measure registered crypto customers nationwide, not FNB’s client base.

“FNB customers will now have access and exposure to crypto assets, with the ability to trade a set of curated coins, as well as benefiting from the bank’s investment knowledge and experience,” said Sizwe Nxedlana, CEO of FNB and RMB Private Banking and Wealth Management.