Crypto assets are regarded as a financial instruments for Income Tax purposes and not as a currency. As such the profit or loss on crypto asset trading could either be taxed as normal income if the intention of the investor was to speculate or alternatively the profit or loss could be regarded as a capital gain or loss if the intention of the investor was to hold it long-term as a capital investment.
For VAT purposes the exchange of crypto assets into South African Rand are regarded as an exempt supply.