The four supplied guides cover two different kinds of tool, and mixing them up is a common beginner mistake.
Exchanges
VALR and Binance are exchanges. You create an account, verify your identity with an ID document and a selfie, deposit Rand from your bank, and buy crypto. The exchange holds it for you, the same way a bank holds your money.
The VALR guide covers registering, verifying, funding with ZAR by EFT or Instant EFT, and buying BNB. The Binance guide covers registering, verifying email and phone, identity verification, turning on two-factor security, and depositing ZAR.
Self-custody wallets
SafePal and MetaMask are wallets you control yourself. Nobody holds your funds and nobody can reset your access. Your twelve-word recovery phrase is the only key.
Both wallet guides give the same core warning. The SafePal guide states that anyone who asks for your twelve words is a scammer and that SafePal will never ask. The MetaMask guide states that anyone who has your twelve words owns everything in your wallet, that no real support agent will ever ask for them, and that they should never be stored as a screenshot, photo, email, or cloud note.
The order the guides imply
Open an exchange account
VALR or Binance. Verify your identity and deposit Rand.
Buy BNB
You need BNB to pay transaction fees on BNB Smart Chain.
Create a self-custody wallet
SafePal or MetaMask. Write the twelve words on paper.
Add BNB Smart Chain and the right tokens
BTCB, BNB and USDT as BEP-20.
Send a small test amount first
Confirm it arrives before moving anything larger.
The Official Addresses, In One Place
Type these in yourself. Do not reach any of them through an advert, a search result, a message from a group, or a link someone sent you, however trustworthy that person seems.
| Tool | Official address |
|---|---|
| SafePal wallet | safepal.com |
| MetaMask wallet | metamask.io |
| Binance exchange | binance.com |
| VALR exchange | valr.com |
| Block explorer | bscscan.com |
| Live gas fees | bscscan.com/gastracker |
How the fake sites catch people. Scam copies use addresses that look almost right: a letter swapped, an extra word, a different ending. Searching for a wallet name often surfaces paid adverts for those copies above the real site. Reading the address character by character before you type your recovery phrase into anything is the habit that protects you.
The same applies to app stores. Install SafePal, MetaMask and Binance from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, or from the addresses above, and check the publisher name before installing.
The full written guides for all four are on the Step-by-Step Guides page, reachable from the top menu at any time.