South Africa has one of the highest bitcoin adoption rates in the world by population, and surveys show nearly half of South Africans believe crypto is the future of money.
That means that investment is undergoing radical change, with crypto forming a key component of portfolios.
The good news is that it is now possible to invest in a wider range of assets – from stocks and bonds to crypto – on a single platform, with real ownership in real assets (unlike contracts for difference, or CFDs).
Turlov Family Office Securities (TFOS) entered the SA market in 2022 and holds both Financial Services Provider (FSP) and Crypto Asset Service Provider (Casp) licences.
“We see a huge opportunity for financial advisors and wealth managers in SA,” says Oleksandr Tsyhlin, executive director at TFOS.
“The problem you find in South Africa is that opportunities for buying these different asset classes is fragmented. You have to work through multiple platforms and brokers. We offer the ability to invest in a huge number of different asset types, from world-leading stocks such as Amazon and Tesla, to ETFs [exchange-traded funds] and crypto, on a single platform.”
The platform can be accessed via a mobile application or through a web browser, offering a seamless experience.
It represents the next step in combining digital and traditional assets within a single, convenient solution.
Licensing
What made this possible was the introduction of the Casp licensing regime by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in June 2023, providing financial advisors with a legitimate path to include crypto in client portfolios.
More than 300 Casp licences have been issued out of 512 applications. The enforcement regime is operational, and active, with 56 open investigations. The FSCA has made it clear that if you are offering crypto services, you need a licence.
The stats show that clients want to invest in crypto, but their advisors have been hesitant due to the absence of regulation. That is no longer a problem.
What is more of a problem is that advisors are often ill-equipped to make recommendations on cryptocurrencies. But more importantly, the infrastructure for investing has been fragmented.
“Ask most advisors why they have not added crypto to their offering, and the answer is not what you would expect. It is not that they do not see the demand. It is that the infrastructure does not make sense,” says Tsyhlin.
“Today, if an advisor wants to offer a client both offshore equities and crypto, they typically need two platforms, two onboarding processes, two compliance workflows, and two sets of reporting. The client ends up with a split view of their portfolio, and the advisor ends up with more administrative work for the same client.”
That infrastructure gap is closing
The Casp licensing framework, combined with existing FSP broker licences, now makes it possible for a single platform to offer real securities such as NYSE, Nasdaq and Euronext alongside regulated crypto.
These are not tokenised representations of real-world assets, nor are they CFDs.
They represent actual share ownership and actual crypto on one account under one regulatory umbrella.
Very few platforms in South Africa hold both an FSP broker and a Casp licence. Fewer still offer real securities rather than synthetic products, such as CFDs.
“This is worth checking when you evaluate providers. The difference between owning a share and owning a CFD matters more than most product comparisons suggest,” adds Tsyhlin.
What this means in practice
Advisors with access to a dual licensed platform can do something that was not possible two years ago. They can build a single portfolio for a client that includes US equities, global ETFs, and a regulated crypto allocation, all visible in one place and all under FSCA oversight.
This does not mean advisors should rush clients into crypto. Crypto assets remain volatile, and most portfolio construction frameworks suggest a small allocation, typically 2-5%, as a starting point.
The value is not in maximising crypto exposure. It is in having the infrastructure to include it when it fits, rather than losing the client who goes looking for it elsewhere.
For the more than 5 000 certified financial planners and 25 000 independent advisors in South Africa, this is a business question, not a technology question.
The clients who are buying crypto without you today are the same clients who will look for an advisor who offers it tomorrow.
“The infrastructure exists. The regulation exists. The demand has been here for years. The practical first step is simple. Ask your platform provider whether they hold both an FSP broker licence and a Casp licence, and whether they offer real asset ownership or synthetic products,” says Tsyhlin.
That single question will tell you most of what you need to know,”
Brought to you by Turlov Family Office Securities.
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