VALR review: FSCA licences, rand deposits and missing fee tables

Who runs VALR

VALR says it was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. The footer of every page names VALR (Pty) Ltd as “a licensed financial services provider (FSP #53308)”. The site has versions for South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana and a global version, but the Kenyan, Nigerian and Ghanaian home pages carry the same footer and name no local company, regulator or payment method. All facts in this review were checked on 28 October 2026 on VALR’s pages, in its FAIS disclosure notice and in the registers of the FSCA and the National Credit Regulator.

Licences and registrations

• VALR (Pty) Ltd holds FSP licence 53308. Its FAIS disclosure notice lists Category I and Category II (discretionary) authorisations for crypto assets, and the FSCA register shows the company as authorised since 12 April 2024. The notice adds that the FSCA currently exempts VALR, as a crypto asset service provider, from holding professional indemnity and fidelity insurance, and that VALR is registered as an accountable institution under the Financial Intelligence Centre Act.
• VALR DAM Pty Ltd provides futures trading. It is “a licensed Financial Services Provider (FSP #54897) and Over-the-Counter Derivatives Provider”; the FSCA register shows it as authorised since 20 September 2025.
• VALR Loans (Pty) Ltd provides borrowing. It is registered with the National Credit Regulator as a credit provider (NCRCP15447), which the NCR register confirms. This is a credit registration, not a crypto licence, so we list it as a registration.

VALR also says it has “regulatory approval to operate in Europe” and approvals in the Cayman Islands and the Middle East, but no page we could read names those companies or authorities, so we do not list them. Its compliance article sits in the help centre, which showed a security check we did not try to get past.

Fees

The “Fees” link on valr.com leads to the same help centre, so this review has no maker and taker rates and no withdrawal fees. The VIP page only says that fee tiers follow your 30-day trading volume and that you can see your tier in your profile once logged in. VALR describes VALR Pay, its transfer service between users, as free.

Deposits, withdrawals and USDT

In South Africa you fund your account by bank transfer; Auto-Buy works with scheduled EFT payments that carry a reference. VALR’s beginner’s guide says you can add US dollars, euros or rand and that it supports credit cards and Apple Pay. Withdrawals go to your bank account by wire transfer. VALR also mentions “mobile money” among the currencies it supports, without naming a provider or a country.

Tether (USDT) is on VALR’s buy and sell list, but the public pages do not say which networks VALR uses for USDT or what a withdrawal costs. Check the network and the fee in the app before you send.

Futures and margin

VALR DAM offers perpetual futures with leverage of up to 60x on pairs such as BTCUSDT. A separate product, VALR Perps, runs through a third-party liquidity provider (Hyperliquid) and also covers stocks, indices, commodities and currencies; there VALR says it “acts only as an intermediary”. Spot margin goes up to 10x. Leverage multiplies losses as well as gains: VALR itself writes that higher leverage can “accelerate your losses”, and a perps trade closes automatically once the amount you set at risk is used up.

Earn products

VALR offers three: Steady Returns (staking, which you can stop at any time with no lock-up), On-Chain Earn (your funds are lent to the Aave protocol) and Variable Earn (lending to VALR’s own loan book for margin trading and crypto loans). VALR says that, “as with any yield strategy, there are risks”: lent crypto depends on the borrowers and on the protocol, and staked crypto can fall in value.

Before you open an account

• Check the trading fee for your tier and the fee for each withdrawal in the app before you trade.
• Confirm the USDT network in the app before sending or receiving.
• If you use futures or margin, decide in advance how much you can afford to lose.

We have not tested VALR with our own account yet; this review will be updated when we do.