South African Companies Convert Cash Holdings Into BTC— Crypto Asset Is Hedge Against Devaluation

New reports emerging from South Africa suggest privately held firms are converting a portion of their cash holdings into bitcoin as they seek to hedge against currency devaluation. According to one report, an open-source software specialist firm, LSD Open, could well be the first South African company to make the bold step after it reportedly acquired $134,000 worth of bitcoin.

Bitcoin Philosophy

As a local report explains, LSD Open completed the purchase in two separate transactions and an average price of just over $34,200 per BTC was paid. At the time of writing, the value of LSD Open’s BTC holdings had grown by almost 70% in just “a matter of weeks.” Meanwhile, the report also discloses that LSD Open’s BTC acquisition had been facilitated by Bitfund, a local cryptocurrency exchange.

LSD Open CEO Stefan Lesicnik is quoted explaining how bitcoin’s attributes are aligned with the philosophy of his company. Lesicnik said:

Our vision is to make the world more open, and bitcoin supports our philosophy on how we believe the world works best.

The CEO adds that working in the open-source space seems to “attract many crypto enthusiasts for whom the decentralised, open nature of cryptocurrencies appeals.” Meanwhile, Lesicnik also discloses that LSD Open is also involved in a “broad spectrum of the ecosystem, including running and maintaining bitcoin full nodes.”

More Companies Planning to Buy

In the meantime, the same report also quotes Dean Joffe, co-founder of Bitfund, revealing how his organization “has helped seven or eight South African firms to buy cryptocurrencies – mainly bitcoin and stablecoins like USDC.” Joffe also adds that his company is already “in discussions with two Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies about doing the same for them.”

However, the report explains that these companies “have not yet pulled the trigger on any cryptocurrency purchases.”