Sonya Kuhnel has been interested in digital currencies since late 2013 and one of the first women involved in the industry in South Africa. In 2013, she started a bitcoin payment company called Bitcoin Payments, a BitPay Affiliate partner, which allowed online merchants in South Africa to accept bitcoin as a payment method for goods and services.

In 2014, Sonya co-founded Bitcoin Events, a company that hosts the Bitcoin & Blockchain Africa Conferences in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The conferences attract