Absa’s bold leap into stablecoins

Loading player...

Rob Downes, Absa’s head of digital assets at Corporate and Investment Bank, explains the reasoning behind its recent collaboration with crypto infrastructure giant Ripple, and why it is piloting its own stablecoin – backed by gold.

10 Feb English South Africa Tech News · Investing

Is this a crypto winter – and if so, when will it be over?

Blake Player, chief commercial officer at VALR, has seen plenty of crypto bear markets, but is this one over yet? And will gold profits now be recycled back into bitcoin?

3 Feb 17 min

While bitcoin disappointed in 2025, crypto turned the financial world on its head.

While everyone’s been focused on bitcoin’s disappointing price in 2025, a few other things slipped under the radar. Companies now account for 5% of bitcoin holdings and stablecoin volumes exceed Visa transactions by a country mile, explains Hannes Wessels, SA country manager for Binance.

27 Jan 13 min

AI trading tools can hallucinate and outright lie

In this podcast, Abhishek Saxena, head of strategy and growth at AI research and development firm Sentient, explains what happens to traders relying uncritically on AI trading tools. They can easily go rogue.

20 Jan 15 min

Bring on blockchain: Only 3% of Africans qualify for mortgage financing

The rest obviously still spend money on housing – and a novel rent-to-own model that even street hawkers can afford may be just what the continent needs. Empowa CEO Glen Jordan tells us more.

13 Jan 23 min

Why hasn’t bitcoin followed gold to the heavens?

Gold is heavily overbought, says Carel de Jager of crypto analytics firm Silver Sixpence, while bitcoin faced heavy selling pressure in the latter part of last year – but those pressures appear to be lifting, creating a bullish case for bitcoin in 2026.

7 Jan 20 min

Absa’s bold leap into stablecoins

Other recent episodes

Is this a crypto winter – and if so, when will it be over?

While bitcoin disappointed in 2025, crypto turned the financial world on its head.

AI trading tools can hallucinate and outright lie

Bring on blockchain: Only 3% of Africans qualify for mortgage financing

Why hasn’t bitcoin followed gold to the heavens?

Products

Resources

Company