Artis Turba was never a big name in crypto. You won’t find it on lists of top exchanges. No YouTube tutorials. No Reddit threads full of user stories. But if you lived in South Africa between 2018 and 2022 and wanted to buy Bitcoin with Rand, you might have used it. Now, it’s gone. And understanding why it disappeared tells you a lot about what really matters in crypto exchanges today.
What Was Artis Turba?
Artis Turba was a small, South Africa-focused cryptocurrency exchange. It launched in September 2018 and shut down for good on January 28, 2022. Its whole purpose was simple: let South Africans trade crypto using South African Rand (ZAR). No USD. No EUR. Just ZAR. That made it different from giants like Binance or Coinbase, which barely supported local currencies outside the U.S. and Europe.
The founders, Nigel and Nickey, built it to be easy. No confusing charts. No margin trading. No futures. Just buy BTC, ETH, XRP, or their own ARTIS token with a bank transfer and sell when you wanted cash back. It was meant for people new to crypto who didn’t want to jump into complex platforms. The interface was basic, but clean. The support team answered emails. The KYC process took up to 48 hours - slower than some, but not unusual for a small exchange.
How It Worked
You couldn’t use a credit card. You couldn’t deposit via PayPal. The only way to put money in was through a wire transfer from a South African bank account. Withdrawals in ZAR happened once a day, on business days. Crypto withdrawals? Those went out on the blockchain as soon as you clicked confirm. No delays there.
They supported 12 coins: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Tron, Digibyte, Electroneum, Stellar, Binance Coin, EOS, BitTorrent, Monero, and ARTIS. The ARTIS token was their own project - launched in late 2017 - with a total supply of 350 million. At shutdown, only about 29 million were in circulation. Holders got 50% of trading fees back as rewards. Sounds good? Only if people were trading. And they weren’t.
Artis Turba never cracked 1,000 daily trades. CoinMarketCap didn’t even track its volume. It was labeled "Untracked Listing" - meaning no one could verify how much was actually moving. That’s not a sign of success. That’s a sign of silence.
Why It Failed
There’s one word that explains Artis Turba’s death: liquidity.
Most exchanges make money from trading fees. But if no one’s trading, there’s no fee. Artis Turba’s model depended on volume. With so few users, the trading fees barely covered server costs, staff salaries, and compliance. The ARTIS token rewards program sounded generous, but it was a cash drain. They were paying out fees that didn’t exist.
South Africa’s crypto market was growing, but not fast enough. Bigger players like Luno and Paxful already had more users, better branding, and more features. Artis Turba didn’t have funding to compete. No venture capital. No marketing budget. Just a small team trying to run a complex financial platform with almost no traffic.
Regulatory gray areas didn’t help either. They claimed to be registered with the South African Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), but no public record confirmed it. That scared off cautious users. And when the crypto market crashed in 2018 and again in 2022, small exchanges were the first to fold.
User Experience and Feedback
There’s almost no user feedback. One review on Cryptogeek gave it 4 out of 5 stars. That’s it. No Reddit threads. No Trustpilot page. No YouTube videos showing how to use it. That’s not because everyone loved it. That’s because almost no one used it.
People who did try it said the platform worked fine for basic buys and sells. No major hacks reported. No frozen accounts. No sudden outages. But the lack of support channels beyond email was a red flag. No live chat. No phone number. No community forum. When things went wrong, you were on your own.
And when the shutdown came, it was abrupt. On January 13, 2022, users got an email: "We’re closing. Withdraw your funds by January 28." No warning. No transition plan. No offer to sell the platform to another exchange. Just a final notice.
What Happened to the ARTIS Token?
The ARTIS token still exists on the blockchain. You can still see its address. You can still check its balance. But it has no value. No exchange lists it. No wallet supports it. No one trades it. It’s digital ghost money.
Artis Turba’s token was never meant to be a long-term investment. It was a loyalty program wrapped in blockchain tech. Without the exchange, the token lost its only purpose. And now, it’s worth nothing.
What You Can Learn From Artis Turba
Artis Turba’s story isn’t about failure. It’s about realism.
Many people think crypto exchanges are easy to start. Just build a website, add a few coins, and wait for users. But the truth? You need scale. You need liquidity. You need trust. And you need money to survive the long haul.
Artis Turba tried to serve a real need: ZAR trading. But they didn’t build a system that could grow. They didn’t attract enough users to make the math work. They didn’t invest in security, marketing, or support. And when the market turned, they had no buffer.
If you’re thinking of starting a small exchange, or even just using one, remember this: volume is life. Without it, even the best platform dies quietly.
Where to Trade ZAR Crypto Now
Artis Turba is gone. But South African crypto traders still have options.
- Luno - The most popular local exchange. Easy to use, supports ZAR, and has strong security.
- Paxful - Peer-to-peer trading. Buy Bitcoin with bank transfer, mobile money, or even gift cards.
- Binance - Global giant with ZAR deposits via bank transfer. More coins, lower fees, better tools.
- Valr - Another South African platform with fast KYC and ZAR support. Good for active traders.
All of these have thousands of users, verified security, and active customer support. None of them shut down after four years.
Final Thoughts
Artis Turba wasn’t a scam. It wasn’t a Ponzi scheme. It was just a small project that ran out of steam. It tried to do something useful - connect everyday South Africans to crypto - but didn’t have the resources to keep going.
Its closure is a warning. Not to users, but to anyone thinking they can build a crypto exchange on passion alone. Crypto isn’t just about technology. It’s about economics, trust, and scale. Artis Turba had the first two. It ran out of the third.
Today, it’s a footnote. A case study. A quiet lesson in what happens when ambition meets reality.
Mike Calwell
November 16, 2025 AT 21:05artis turba? never heard of it. guess that says it all.
Bruce Murray
November 17, 2025 AT 01:36It’s sad but not surprising. Small teams trying to solve real problems often get crushed by the sheer weight of scale. They didn’t fail because they were bad-they failed because the system doesn’t reward quiet, honest effort. Keep building anyway.
Jay Davies
November 18, 2025 AT 13:37Let’s be precise: Artis Turba didn’t just lack liquidity-it lacked a viable business model entirely. Trading fees as revenue require volume, which requires trust, which requires marketing, which requires capital. They had none of the above. It’s not a cautionary tale about crypto-it’s a textbook case of bootstrapped fintech doom.