BNC#9 | Wheatley Q&A: Will the SARB take your crypto? And Eskom's missed Bitcoin windfall

Editorial note: This session was recorded at BNC#9 on Thursday 13 August 2026. In the days after this Q&A, the FSCA announced 20-year debarment orders against Warren Wheatley and two colleagues over share trading in Altvest Capital (Africa Bitcoin Corporation's predecessor) in September 2022, along with a combined R10 million in administrative penalties. Wheatley has resigned from the board; Stafford Masie, referenced throughout this session, is now interim CEO. All three dispute the findings and are seeking reconsideration from the Financial Services Tribunal. Nothing in this Q&A relates to that matter, which concerns trades from roughly four years before this conversation, but readers should have that context. See the flags section of the publish package for detail and sourcing. At BNC#9, Warren Wheatley told David Shapiro that Bitcoin has become boring, and he meant it as a compliment. The Africa Bitcoin Corporation founder walked through the mechanics: borrowing dollars from a European bank at 3%, using the money to buy Bitcoin, then lending to South African SMEs at 18%, less than half what most of them pay elsewhere. He explained the loan-to-value discipline that keeps it safe, why he'd rather fund a farmer hiring 80 people than a two-person AI unicorn, and what he thinks the Reserve Bank's draft crypto rules would do to the industry if they pass as written. He also covered how Bitcoin miners quietly became a buffer for AI data centres, what Eskom missed out on, and his own advice on keeping Bitcoin safe.