The interest rates offered by some of the country’s larger banks on various savings products and other money market accounts roughly range anything between 1% and 4% per annum. The SA Reserve Bank key repo rate is currently 3.5%, which means the prime rate that affects consumers is 7% – South Africa’s lowest rate since 1966. And rates are likely to remain subdued for some time.
There are no fixed terms and no admin fees, and users are able to move their funds into their ordinary crypto wallet whenever they require it. There are several apps out there that operate on what is known as the DeFi network. According to DeFi Pulse, close to $20-billion is tied up in these applications across the world. Apart from Oasis, other well-known options include Compound, Aave and Maker. De Sousa has taken loans on all of them.
Should the ethereum price have dropped below R650,000, the “smart contract” would have automatically liquidated his balance, and deducted a 13% liquidation fee plus the loan amount, and refunded him the balance. The best part of this story is that De Sousa was under no obligation to make monthly instalments on the loan, and could even have ignored things for the next 20 years if he wanted to.