Digital assets are no longer a fringe conversation in South Africa’s financial sector. At the Luno Institutional Digital Assets Conference (LIDAC26) in Cape Town on 11 June 2026, fund managers, institutional investors, fintech, and payments specialists will engage with the evidence and hear from industry experts.
The question of whether retail investors should own digital assets has largely been answered. Discovery Bank now offers crypto trading through Luno, crypto and stablecoin payments are accepted at over 650,000 merchants nationwide, and a rand-backed stablecoin, ZARU, has been launched by a consortium to modernise payment infrastructure by bringing the rand onto blockchain rails. The conversation is turning institutional: how to use this infrastructure to move value, manage liquidity and access new asset classes at scale.
Stablecoins are at the centre of the institutional shift. Blockchain-based settlement networks now move value in seconds, without the lag that adds cost and delay. The appeal is straightforward: faster settlement, fewer intermediaries and payments that can be automated.
The ZAR Universal (ZARU) stablecoin is significant because the country’s financial establishment is firmly on board, with partners including Sanlam, Luno, EasyEquities, and Lesaka. Each ZARU coin is fully backed by high-quality rand-denominated assets, including cash, bank deposits, and South African government bonds, and its reserves are verified monthly by Moore Johannesburg.
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Institutional-grade credibility makes ZARU viable as financial infrastructure. Christo de Wit, Luno’s country manager, says, “ZARU is a crucial milestone for South Africa’s digital economy, making everyday payments and money transfers…
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