Not an estate agent
We do not market property, we do not represent a seller or a buyer, we hold no fidelity fund certificate, and we take no commission on the sale. If someone tells you we can find you a property, they are not us.
Property purchases · South Africa
Buying property with Bitcoin
Buying property with Bitcoin
in South Africa.
Conexus converts your crypto asset to South African rand and pays the rand into the conveyancing attorney’s trust account against a signed agreement of sale. We are not an estate agent, we do not transfer property, and we give no legal or tax advice.
Conexus
Indicative USDT rate
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USDT / ZAR
Settled to the attorney’s trust account
Conexus is not an estate agent and does not transfer property
We convert crypto assets to rand and settle the rand into a conveyancing attorney’s trust account against a signed agreement of sale. We give no legal or tax advice and we never pay a seller directly.
This page describes the South African market specifically: the conveyancing process, the Deeds Office and the statutes named below are South African. Most buyers now bring USDT to the conversion rather than Bitcoin — the desk quotes both, and the sequence is identical.
One paragraph, so there is no confusion
Nobody transfers a house for Bitcoin in South Africa. A crypto asset is not money and not funds, the Deeds Office registers a rand transaction, and the purchase price in an agreement of sale is a rand figure. What actually happens is that a crypto asset is sold for rand and the rand is used to buy the property.
Conexus does exactly one part of that: the conversion, and the payment of the resulting rand into the trust account of the conveyancing attorney appointed for the transfer. Everything else — the offer, the agreement, the FICA on the property transaction, the transfer duty, the lodgement, the registration — sits with the estate agent, the attorney and you.
We never hold your money as an agent, we never receive it on behalf of the seller, and we do not pay a seller directly. The rand goes to the attorney’s trust account, which is regulated separately under the Legal Practice Act and audited. That is deliberate: it keeps the money inside a structure built for exactly this purpose, and it keeps Conexus inside the single role it performs — the exchange, and nothing after it.
What Conexus is not, in this transaction
Not a conveyancer
We do not draft the agreement of sale, we do not lodge in the Deeds Office and we do not effect transfer. You appoint a conveyancing attorney and they do that work.
Not your legal or tax adviser
We will explain how the conversion works and what it costs. We will not tell you whether to buy, how to structure ownership, what the transfer duty consequence is, or how the disposal of your crypto asset is taxed.
Not an escrow
We do not hold funds pending conditions, and we do not sit between buyer and seller. The trust account is the escrow, and it belongs to the attorney.
FAIS · Joint Communication 1 of 2026
The regulatory position, stated plainly
On 28 May 2026 the financial sector regulators issued Joint Communication 1 of 2026. It confirms that facilitating a customer paying a merchant in crypto assets — with property purchases expressly included — is an intermediary service in relation to a financial product under the FAIS Act. It also restates that a crypto asset is not money and not funds, and falls outside the National Payment System Act.
In practical terms that means two things for you. First, the conversion leg of a property purchase is a regulated financial service and should be done by a licensed provider, not by a helpful acquaintance with an exchange account. Second, nobody in this chain is operating a payment service, because crypto is not a payment instrument in South African law. What we are doing is an exchange, followed by an ordinary rand payment into a trust account.
Crypto assets have been a financial product under the FAIS Act since General Notice 1350 of 19 October 2022, and the transitional exemption for unlicensed operators closed on 30 November 2023. A desk that takes a large sum through a property purchase without an FSCA licence is not offering you a shortcut; it is offering you a counterparty with no regulator.
More on the obligations the desk works under is on the compliance page.
The actual sequence
This is the order things happen in. The conversion is one step inside a much longer process, and it is not the first one.
Conexus
Indicative USDT rate
—
USDT / ZAR
Firm rate quoted by a dealer
01
Offer to purchase, signed
You and the seller sign an offer to purchase or agreement of sale in rand, with a purchase price, a deposit, suspensive conditions and a date. Nothing at the desk happens before this document exists, because without it we have no lawful reason for the payment.
02
Conveyancing attorney appointed
Usually nominated by the seller. The attorney opens the file, gives you the trust account details on their letterhead, and confirms in writing what the funds are for. We take those details from the attorney, not from a chat message.
03
FICA, twice, for different reasons
The attorney and the estate agent are accountable institutions under the FIC Act and will run their own FICA on the property transaction — identity, address, source of funds, source of wealth. Conexus runs its own FICA at the desk under Item 22 of Schedule 1. The two are separate, neither replaces the other, and the source-of-funds explanation you give must be the same in both.
04
Firm quote and conversion
A dealer quotes a firm rate for the full amount, in writing, held for an agreed window. You send the crypto asset on the confirmed network. We convert it to rand.
05
Settlement into the trust account
The rand is paid into the conveyancing attorney’s trust account, referenced to your name and the property. You get a deal confirmation showing the asset, the amount, the rate, the fee and the rand paid — the document your attorney, your accountant and SARS will each want.
06
Transfer duty, lodgement, registration
The attorney deals with transfer duty at SARS, obtains the receipt, lodges in the Deeds Office and attends to registration of transfer into your name. Timelines here are the Deeds Office’s, not ours, and are measured in weeks.
Timing is the risk nobody plans for
Property deadlines are contractual and the price of a crypto asset is not. If your agreement requires a deposit within seven days and the balance on registration, the market can move a long way between those two dates. Decide with your attorney when the conversion should happen, rather than leaving it to whichever day the funds are needed. A dealer will hold a firm rate for an agreed window, but no rate can be held for six weeks.
Non-resident buyers: raise exchange control with your own bank
If you are not a South African resident for exchange control purposes, the funding of a property purchase has an exchange control dimension that has nothing to do with this desk and that we cannot resolve for you. Non-resident purchases are normally funded through an Authorised Dealer, with the introduction of funds recorded so that the proceeds of a future sale can be dealt with correctly. Raise it with your own bank before you sign, not after. We settle domestically, in rand, into a South African trust account — nothing more. See our page on international settlement and exchange control for the position in full.
What the desk needs from you
- The signed offer to purchase or agreement of sale, in full.
- The conveyancing attorney’s trust account details, on their letterhead or from a verified address at their firm — never from a chat message alone.
- Written confirmation from the attorney of what the payment relates to, so the reference on the settlement is unambiguous.
- Full FICA onboarding at the desk: identity, proof of address, and a documented source of funds and source of wealth appropriate to the size of the transaction.
- The wallet and the network the crypto asset will be sent from, confirmed in writing before any transfer.
A large property-related payment is exactly the pattern that requires enhanced due diligence under section 21A of the FIC Act. Expect the questions to go further than they would on a small trade. A desk that does not ask them is failing its obligations, and its problem eventually becomes yours.
Property and crypto: straight answers
Not directly. The purchase price in the agreement of sale is a rand amount, the Deeds Office registers a rand transaction, and the seller is paid in rand out of the attorney's trust account. What can happen is that your crypto asset is sold for rand and that rand funds the purchase. Anyone offering to "transfer the property for Bitcoin" is describing something that does not exist in South African conveyancing.
No, and we would decline if asked. The rand is paid into the conveyancing attorney's trust account only. That is where property money belongs, it is where both sides' protection lives, and paying a seller directly would put us in a role we are not licensed for.
Because the attorney, the estate agent and this desk are each separately accountable institutions under the FIC Act, and each has its own duty to identify and verify you. Our onboarding does not discharge the attorney's duty and theirs does not discharge ours. Give both the same source-of-funds explanation and the same documents, and the duplication costs you nothing but a second upload.
That is a decision for you and your attorney, and it is genuinely consequential, because registration can be weeks after signature and the price of a crypto asset moves over weeks. We will hold a firm rate for an agreed window and we will tell you honestly what window is realistic. We will not advise you on when to convert; that is financial advice, and it is not what this desk is licensed to give.
Transfer duty is payable to SARS on most property transfers, and the conveyancer obtains a transfer duty receipt before lodging in the Deeds Office. It is calculated on the purchase price. We do not calculate it, pay it or advise on it — your attorney does. Budget for it separately from the amount you convert.
No. We do not move value across borders and we do not repatriate funds into South Africa through crypto. If you already hold a crypto asset and you want rand in South Africa, we can convert it domestically — but the exchange control treatment of a non-resident property purchase is a matter for your own Authorised Dealer, and you should raise it before you sign. The international settlement page sets out the position in full.
Disposing of a crypto asset is a disposal, whether or not the rand goes straight to an attorney. SARS treats crypto assets as assets of an intangible nature and taxes them on revenue or capital account depending on the facts. We give you a complete deal confirmation for your records and nothing more — the treatment of that disposal is between you and a registered tax practitioner.
Related
Large-volume trades
Why a deposit-sized or full-purchase-price ticket is priced whole rather than worked into a thin local book.
Onboarding and FICA
Exactly which documents the desk needs, and why enhanced due diligence applies to property-related payments.
Settlement and exchange control
The SARB position for non-resident buyers, and why we do not move value in or out through crypto.
Send us the agreement of sale
A dealer will walk through the sequence with you and your attorney, confirm what the desk can and cannot do, and give you a firm rate in writing before anything moves.
Investing in crypto assets may result in the loss of capital, as the value is variable and can go up as well as down. A crypto asset is not legal tender and does not fall within the National Payment System Act. Conexus Crypto provides an exchange service only and does not provide legal, financial, estate agency, conveyancing or tax advice.