ChainEX: A Year of Growth, Grit, and Big Plans Ahead

2024/2025 has been a defining period for ChainEX. As South Africa’s home-grown cryptocurrency exchange, we’ve spent the last seven years building a platform that puts security, compliance, and user trust first. This past year has been one of consolidation, strengthening our foundations, and preparing for a much bigger future.

Who We Are

ChainEX is South Africa’s only locally built, locally owned digital asset exchange. Founded with the goal of giving South Africans a safe and reliable way to trade cryptocurrencies, we’ve grown into a fully-licensed exchange committed to meeting global standards.

Our platform serves retail traders, long-term investors, OTC clients, and businesses seeking dependable crypto rails. In a space often dominated by offshore giants, we pride ourselves on being accessible, transparent, and committed to our local community.

Where We’re Based

Our roots are proudly South African. ChainEX is headquartered in Jeffreys Bay / Kouga, with team members operating across the country. This distributed approach lets us work with top technical and compliance talent while staying connected to the communities and markets that matter to us.

What’s Been Happening Over the Past Year

The last 12 months have been busy, focused on strengthening the core of the exchange and building the foundation for long-term scale. Key milestones include:

1. Stronger Compliance and Licensing

We’ve continued aligning with FSCA requirements and international VASP standards. During 2024/2025:

We tightened our KYC, risk, and AML processes.

Integrated new blockchain analytics tools.

Completed a deep internal audit of balances, cold storage, and multi-wallet infrastructure.

Began the TRISA Envoy implementation to support Travel Rule compliance for global interoperability.

2. Platform Stability & Infrastructure Upgrades

We invested heavily in backend performance and security:

Improved wallet management across BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, DOT, and more.

Upgraded our matching engine efficiencies.

Continued refining our liquidity strategies

Enhanced monitoring, rapid incident response, and operational resilience.

3. Better Support & Community Engagement

We expanded our helpdesk coverage, improved response times, and are rebuilding parts of our knowledge base. ChainEX was also present in industry discussions, local businesses forums, and the broader South African fintech space, helping educate and advocate for responsible crypto adoption.

4. A Stronger Financial Position

This year, we stabilised recurring revenue, optimised operational costs, and hit multiple break-even months. After seven years, this foundation puts us in a solid position for responsible expansion.

What’s Next: 2025 and Beyond

The next 12-24 months are about building outward - expanding our footprint, improving our offering, and creating real value for users.

1. Expanding Into Africa

Crypto demand across Africa is growing rapidly. Throughout 2025, ChainEX will begin expanding into our neighbouring countries.

Our focus is on compliant, country-specific roll-outs with strong local partnerships, bringing a trusted South African platform to new markets.

2. Exploring Entry Into Asia

We are engaging early with potential partners in Southeast Asia, exploring:

Custody and liquidity partnerships

Market access

Fiat on/off-ramps

Joint licensing opportunities

We’ll only move when the regulatory and operational requirements are fully aligned, but Asia is firmly part of our future strategy.

3. A Modernised Referral & Rewards Program

Our referral system needs a major upgrade, and 2025 is the year we rebuild it properly.
We’re designing a new program that will be:

Transparent

Easy to use

Rewarding for both sides

Competitive with global exchanges

This includes tiered rewards, affiliate options, and better real-time analytics.

Closing Thoughts

ChainEX was built in South Africa for South Africans, but our vision has always been bigger than our borders. We’ve weathered multiple market cycles, tightened our operations, and built a resilient, compliant exchange with seven years of real-world battle scars.

Now, we’re ready for the next chapter.

2025 will be a year of growth, expansion, and renewed energy-and we’re excited to continue building the future of digital asset trading for Africa and beyond.