Luno

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Key details

Parent: Marcus Swanepoel and Timothy Stranex
Launch: 2013
Users: 10M customers

Overview

Luno is an emerging-markets-focused cryptocurrency exchange and wallet, especially prominent in Africa (South Africa, Nigeria) and parts of Southeast Asia and Europe [1, 2, za-cro]. It pairs a beginner-friendly buy/sell/store app with local fiat on/off-ramps in markets that larger exchanges underserve.

History

2013 — founded as BitX in Cape Town and Singapore by Marcus Swanepoel and Timothy Stranex, targeting emerging-market crypto adoption. 2017 — rebrands to Luno and expands across Africa, Southeast Asia and the UK/Europe. 2020 — acquired by Digital Currency Group (DCG), becoming DCG's consumer exchange arm. 2021–2023 — scales past ~10M customers and pursues local licensing in South Africa, Nigeria, the UK and Malaysia. 2024–2025 — pursues EU MiCA authorization and tightens local compliance amid emerging-market regulatory shifts (notably in Nigeria).

Ownership & operator

Operating entity: Luno Pte Ltd (Singapore-incorporated, with major operations in South Africa). Major shareholders: Digital Currency Group (DCG) as parent. Regulators: South Africa's FSCA, Nigeria's SEC, UK FCA registration, Malaysia's SC, and EU MiCA framework.

Technical integration

Mobile and web apps with a trading API. Supports BTC, ETH and selected tokens via crypto deposit addresses, with local fiat funding/withdrawal (e.g. ZAR, NGN, GBP, MYR) via bank transfer and local rails, plus simple savings/earn products.

Implementations & partners

Major competitors: [[binance]] (global exchange, strong in Africa) + [[coinbase]] (global exchange) + [[bitso]] (emerging-markets exchange).

Status

Active, a leading emerging-markets crypto exchange owned by Digital Currency Group [1, 2].

Sources

1 Luno — official
2 Luno — Wikipedia
za-cro In-corpus: reports/countries/ZA-south-africa.md

Source

Biography extracted from luno.md. See matrix.md for standards-support matrix if present.