Weekly recap: South Africa arrives, and barely moves the number
Total volume was $209.01M, down 3.7%, with Luno and VALR in the index for the first full week. They add $5.15M between them, because the institutional half of a South African exchange book is set aside rather than published. Deposits set a record at 205,664 while active wallets fell 5.9%.
- 205,664
- Deposits
- 61,526
- Active wallets
- $5.15M
- What South Africa adds
- 67.3%
- Obiex's share
an all-time high
down 5.9%
on $249.36M set aside
Total attributed stablecoin volume across the 25 venues we publish was $209,006,086 in the week of 5 to 11 October — down 3.7%.
It is the first full week with South Africa in the index, and that is the interesting part: it barely shows.
Two new venues, $5.15M
Luno and VALR went public on 5 October. Between them they added $5,151,057 to the week — VALR $3,185,439, Luno $1,965,618.
They are far bigger than that. The reason the published figure is small is that both are exchanges issuing a deposit address per client, so the box tells you nothing about who is behind it. Boxes under $1M lifetime are treated as customers. Boxes above it are large enough to be a desk or a market maker using the exchange, so they are set aside and disclosed rather than counted.
That set-aside was $249,356,351 this week — forty-eight times what the two venues contributed, and larger than the entire market we publish.
Over their lifetimes: VALR publishes $549.67M with $23.20bn set aside; Luno publishes $330.82M with $1.77bn set aside.
We would rather publish the smaller number we can defend and show you the larger one next to it.
The week itself
Deposits set a record: 205,664, past last week's 205,127. Active wallets fell 5.9% to 61,526 — more transactions, fewer wallets.
Obiex did $140,592,221, down 8.8%, and is still 67.3% of everything we publish. Flutterwave rose 40.5% to $28,213,984. Quidax $19,272,950 (+6.9%), Monica $4,454,165 (−4.0%).
Falling: Onboard −53.9%, Luno −37.3%, VALR −25.1%, Divest −19.3%, Daya Pro −15.7%.
September holds
September closes at $1,026,907,045, up 6.1% on August.
We sent you $998.38M a week ago. Adding three venues and seven method changes moved it 2.9%, and the direction is unchanged. All eight restatements.
The IPO closes tomorrow
The tokenised Dangote Refinery offer closes Tuesday 13 October at 17:00 WAT, with ₦26,206,061 from 285 wallets — 13.1% of the tranche. Where it stands on the last day.
Method
Total attributed stablecoin volume across the 25 venues published as live, for the ISO week of 5–11 October 2026: each venue's observed flow, plus business books at venues that publish one separately, plus confirmed settlement into a venue's own sinks at venues whose books separate cleanly. At the two venues tagged customer_capped (Luno, VALR) the published figure is the per-client boxes under $1M lifetime only; boxes above that line are large enough to be a desk or market maker rather than a retail customer, so they are excluded here and disclosed separately — $249,356,351 in this week alone. Deposit-side only. Luno and VALR went public on 5 October and Divest on 9 October; their history is included, which restates prior periods. Venues in mapping or terminal review are excluded.
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AfriFlux (2026). Weekly recap: South Africa arrives, and barely moves the number. Published 12 October 2026. https://www.afriflux.xyz/feed/weekly-recap-2026-w41
Reproducing a chart? Use this line: Source: AfriFlux — on-chain intelligence for Africa's stablecoin economy. afriflux.xyz