South Africa and Zapper Partner to Expand Binance Pay Across 31,000 Outlets

Binance Pay is designed to let users send, receive, and spend digital assets instantly and securely within the Binance app. The new partnership with Zapper, a South African financial management platform, makes it possible for merchants connected to Zapper to accept payments directly through Binance Pay. This offers South African consumers the ability to spend crypto in their daily purchases in a way that mirrors traditional card or mobile payments. The move also represents a significant step for Binance in expanding its reach beyond trading into payments infrastructure.

This development also reflects a continuation of Binance Pay’s earlier upgrades. Earlier this year, Binance introduced features such as “Send via Contact” and “Send On-Chain,” which allow users to make transfers directly to phonebook contacts or through auto-completed addresses with the help of AI. These updates reduced the likelihood of errors, improved security, and made transfers smoother for ordinary users.

The global merchant base for Binance Pay had already surpassed 32,000 before this South African rollout. With the integration of 31,000 additional outlets through Zapper, the coverage has effectively doubled within a short timeframe. Binance highlighted this milestone, presenting it as a turning point for mainstream adoption.

Travel and lifestyle sectors have also been important areas of adoption for Binance Pay. The service was used to process more than $8 million in bookings through Travala in 2024, a figure that illustrates both demand and practical utility for those who choose to pay in digital assets. Binance Pay has also entered partnerships with other travel platforms, showing its focus on positioning cryptocurrency as a global payment rail.

For everyday users, these changes create an opportunity to use cryptocurrency in ways that extend beyond speculation. A person in Johannesburg, for instance, could pay for groceries or services with crypto as simply as they would with a debit card. This aligns with Binance’s stated vision of promoting “the freedom of money,” where people have more choice over the payment methods they use.

For merchants, the addition of Binance Pay through Zapper introduces potential advantages. Businesses, particularly smaller ones, gain access to a customer base that increasingly prefers digital assets for payment. The system could reduce transaction costs and shorten settlement times compared with traditional financial methods. Binance has argued that crypto payment solutions like Binance Pay can give merchants an edge at a time when traditional banking and payment processing continue to face challenges with fees and processing times.

The South African integration with Zapper, combined with Binance Pay’s ongoing development of features and merchant adoption worldwide, demonstrates a deliberate push by Binance to normalize crypto as an everyday payment method. While the broader implications for regulation and adoption remain unfolding, the expansion in South Africa signals that crypto payments are becoming increasingly embedded into real-world commerce rather than remaining confined to trading platforms or niche markets.