Price hike at biggest South African cryptocurrency exchange
VALR, the largest South African cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has notified customers that it will hike its fees for buying and selling from 3 March 2025.
VALR plans to replace its relatively simple pricing structure with a tiered fee system similar to those of rivals Luno and Binance. It is also ending a rebate paid to market makers since its launch in 2018.
Currently, VALR charges fees based on the type of transaction and whether customers are the market “makers” or “takers”.
A market maker can be understood as someone who places assets on the exchange at a higher price than takers are currently paying in the hopes that it will eventually sell at that price.
Makers and takers can operate on either end of a market. In other words, the assets makers put up for sale can be either cryptocurrency like bitcoin or fiat currency like rands.
For example, a maker can put bitcoin on the market for a higher price than takers are currently paying or offer to buy bitcoin with rands at a lower price than others are currently selling.
Since launching in 2018, VALR has offered market makers a rebate — giving them a portion of the fee paid by takers as a reward for providing liquidity to the exchange.
It will eliminate this rebate from next month, although market makers will still pay lower transaction fees.
VALR will also extend its simple category-based fee structure with a tiered system.
The exchange explained that clients will be assigned a tier based on their 30-day rolling volume on spot and futures pairs.
Customers can qualify for a specific tier either through spot or futures volume. The same most favourable tier applies to both categories.
Tiers are assessed on an aggregate account level, and the same fees will apply across all sub-accounts.
Should your 30-day volume increase or decrease to the extent that a different tier applies, VALR will adjust your tier and applicable fees by the following Monday at 10:00 UTC.
“Your initial fee tier on 3 March will be based on your total trading volume for the preceding 30 days,” VALR stated.
VALR explained that in addition to tiers based on monthly trading volume, fees will still be categorised as follows:
- Fiat pairs: all pairs with at least one fiat currency, e.g. BTCZAR, USDTZAR
- Spot crypto to crypto: all pairs where both currencies are crypto, including where one is a stablecoin, e.g. BTCUSDT, ETHUSDC
- Stablecoin to stablecoin: all pairs where both currencies are crypto stablecoins, e.g. USDTUSDC, EURCUSDC.
- Perpetual futures pairs: all PERP pairs
In addition to hiking its exchange trading fees, VALR is also increasing the fees on its simple market buying and selling options from 0.6% to 1.6%.
Fees for deposits, VALR Pay, and internal transfers remain unchanged.
The following tables from VALR’s website summarise its new fees, effective 3 March 2025.
VALR Pro Trading fees
| Tier | Minimum Volume | Spot fiat | Spot Crypto Quote | Spot Stable to Stable | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maker | Taker | Maker | Taker | Maker | Taker | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0.180% | 0.350% | 0.080% | 0.100% | 0.050% | 0.100% |
| 2 | 50,000 | 0.100% | 0.250% | 0.070% | 0.090% | 0.030% | 0.050% |
| 3 | 250,000 | 0.040% | 0.130% | 0.060% | 0.080% | 0.010% | 0.030% |
| 4 | 1,000,000 | 0.030% | 0.090% | 0.050% | 0.070% | 0.000% | 0.020% |
| 5 | 5,000,000 | 0.020% | 0.090% | 0.040% | 0.060% | 0.000% | 0.010% |
| 6 | 10,000,000 | 0.010% | 0.080% | 0.030% | 0.050% | 0.000% | 0.010% |
| 7 | 20,000,000 | -0.010% | 0.080% | 0.020% | 0.045% | 0.000% | 0.010% |
| 8 | 75,000,000 | -0.010% | 0.070% | 0.010% | 0.040% | 0.000% | 0.010% |
| 9 | 250,000,000 | -0.010% | 0.050% | 0.000% | 0.035% | 0.000% | 0.000% |
VALR Simple Buy/Sell fees
| Simple Buy/Sell markets | Old fee | New fee |
|---|---|---|
| Simple Swaps | 0.6% | 1.6% |
| Auto-Buy | 0.6% | 1.6% |
| * Simple Swaps will incur a fee of 1.6% for each leg of the Simple Swap transaction. | ||
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