Crypto is growing up, but it hasn't got a seat at the adults' table just yet

In case you missed it last week, bitcoin hit almost R2-million. This wasn't just another crypto bro celebration moment - it goes deeper. By Lindsey Schutters

- By Lindsey Schutters

Bitcoin's breakthrough last week past $111,000 (R1,966,480 for those keeping track), has been hailed as a genuine turning point for digital assets, coming at a time when traditional tech stocks were having what can only be described as a tantrum.

“Bitcoin hitting a new all-time high above $111,000 marks a major milestone for the crypto industry,” said Hannes Wessels, general manager of Binance South Africa.

“It reflects growing global confidence in digital assets, driven by strong institutional demand and regulatory progress.”

Translation for the rest of us: big money is finally taking crypto seriously, and governments are starting to figure out how to regulate it without completely breaking it.

When trading goes nuclear

The bitcoin surge wasn’t happening in isolation. On 19 May, crypto wallet platforms recorded the kind of trading volumes that would make the JSE weep with envy.

Binance Wallet alone hit more than $5-billion in daily trading — that’s roughly R88-billion changing hands in a single day on a single platform.

To put it in perspective, that’s more than the entire market capitalisation of Shoprite, and it happened in 24 hours on a platform most South Africans probably haven't heard of.