For the better part of a decade, South Africans have been cashing in on crypto arbitrage - an opportunity where almost anyone could profit from simple price differences between local and international crypto exchanges.

What Is Arbitrage?

At its core, arbitrage is the practice of buying and selling the same asset in two different markets to profit from the price gap.

That sounds complicated, but imagine this: There’s a fruit market at the top of your street selling oranges for R1 each. Just down the road, another market is buying oranges from customers for R2 each. If you were quick (and had a big enough basket), you could buy at the first market and sell at the second - making R1 profit per orange.

That’s arbitrage: buying low, selling high - without changing the product at all.

Arbitrage, but with Bitcoin

The same concept has played out in South Africa’s crypto market for years. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have consistently traded at higher prices locally compared to international exchanges.

The strategy was simple: buy crypto abroad, transfer it to a South African crypto exchange, and then sell it for a higher price.

How Big Were the Gains?

2015 started with a bang - arbitrage gaps reached an incredible 55%. That means on a R10,000 trade, you could walk away with over R5,000 profit in a single transaction. While the gap didn’t stay at 55% forever, it remained consistently high for years. During that period, many traders were able to make substantial, repeatable profits - often with relatively low risk compared to other trading strategies

Graph provided by zarbitrage.co.za.

From 2015 to 2021, the price difference (or “gap”) consistently ranged between 5% and 20%. After 2021, the gap narrowed, typically hovering between 2% and 6%. Today, it has shrunk even further, fluctuating between 0% and 4% - a far cry from the golden days of double-digit spreads.

With spreads averaging between 2% and 4%, anyone trading their full annual offshore allowance (R11 million) could have earned between R220,000 and R440,000 for the year - before taxes and fees.

For married couples? Double that. Two allowances, twice the potential return.

Sounds too good to be true, right? At the time, it certainly felt that way! But arbitrage is perfectly legal - and actually plays an important role in stabilizing prices across markets. It's no surprise then that many saw this as "free money".

But… are the Glory Days over?

As of today, the spread sits at around 1% - sometimes even less and has been this way since about the 1st week of April 2025.

After transfer costs, trading fees, and banking charges, most trades today would leave you with little to no profit - or even a loss. In short: You can’t trade right now. The gap’s too small.

But here’s the thing: We’ve been here before.

There have been other low periods. One notable example was late 2023, when the spread hovered near zero for several weeks before jumping up to 4.81%:

Graph provided by zarbitrage.co.za.

To put it in perspective: a 4.8% gap means traders that day could have earned around 4% profit on a single trade. On a R100,000 trade, that’s R4,000 profit - made in one day, in one simple, low-risk transaction. Few other trading strategies offer returns like that with so little exposure.

History shows this market has a habit of waking up - sometimes suddenly, and sometimes without warning.

Is it dead or will we see it turn around soon?

Crypto arbitrage in South Africa has been declared dead more than once. Every time, it’s come back. Whether that happens again - or how soon - is anyone’s guess.

But one thing’s certain: zarbitrage.co.za will be tracking it. And if the next big spike comes, zarbitrage.co.za will show it - live and in full colour.

👉 Want to stay ahead of the next opportunity? Sign up for the zarbitrage.co.za newsletter and get notified when the gap returns.

👉 Want to deep dive into the data? Check out the full history of Arbitrage in South Africa on zarbitrage.co.za.