Luno Review 2026

Luno Review

NOTICE: Luno closed customer accounts in the European markets it exited at the end of August 2026. Deposits, incoming transfers and crypto purchases stopped on 1 June 2026, and crypto sends to external wallets ended on 29 June 2026. From then until 31 August 2026, affected holders could only sell into fiat and withdraw to a bank account. Former customers with a remaining balance must now contact Luno support to claim it. Luno charges a $2 monthly inactivity fee on those balances from 1 October 2026, and an additional $50 monthly dormancy fee applies from December, bringing the total to $52 a month. Balances below the equivalent of $10 fall under the minimum withdrawal threshold and are not paid out.

Luno has framed the exit as a commercial decision to focus on core markets across Africa and Southeast Asia, and it has not linked the move to insolvency, a security incident or a specific regulatory order. The timing tracks the European regulatory calendar closely. The MiCA transitional periods ended on 1 July 2026, from which date only firms carrying a crypto-asset service provider authorisation in ESMA’s register may serve clients in the European Union or the EEA, and Luno does not appear in that register. The company’s earlier French AMF registration ceased to provide a route into the wider European market once the transition closed.

In July 2026, Luno cut about 20% of its global staff and moved resources toward business-to-business services, including white-label crypto infrastructure for banks and fintechs. Luno is also a founding participant in ZARU, a rand-backed stablecoin whose partners include Sanlam, Lesaka Technologies and EasyEquities.

Under co-founder and former CEO Marcus Swanepoel, Luno raised $13.8 million from investors such as Balderton Capital, Digital Currency Group, and Venturra Capital, and DCG acquired the company outright in 2020.

James Lanigan has been chief executive since 22 March 2023, having previously served as chief operating officer. Co-founder Marcus Swanepoel moved to the role of executive chairman at the same time. 

Trading volume has fallen by roughly an order of magnitude from the $96 million daily figure Luno posted in 2020. Trackers now put Luno’s 24-hour volume between roughly $5 million and $10 million, with BTC against the South African rand as the most active pair on CoinGecko. That concentration tells the real story of the business, because Luno is now substantially a South African and emerging-market retail venue rather than a global exchange, and the European wind-down formalises a shift that the order book had already made. CoinGecko indexes 32 coins across 63 trading pairs on the venue, and Coinranking’s listing runs to more than 50 assets including Solana, Cardano and Dogecoin alongside the majors. The available set differs by the country a Luno account is verified in, which is the detail worth stating, because a South African user and an Indonesian user see different menus.

Luno’s strengths lie in its usability. It’s an easy to navigate, relatively straightforward crypto exchange that makes it easy for newcomers to jump right in and invest. The exchange also offers a mobile app with similarly clean design. Luno app reviews are generally positive.

Luno integrated fractional trading for 60+ blue-chip US stocks (Apple, Amazon, Alphabet) and ETFs (S&P 500) via blockchain-based tokenization, primarily for the South African market. The platform now features a dedicated Payments tab, Luno Pay, allowing users to pay for groceries and fuel directly with their crypto balance via QR codes at Pick n Pay and more than 31,000 Zapper merchants.

Opening an account and making an investment in crypto is relatively easy. Be sure to have bank statements and proof of residential address nearby – in some countries, the amount you can deposit and withdraw is tied to how many identity documents you’ve uploaded.

Luno’s interface is clean and uncluttered. Buying on Luno is seamless, but the user experience for selling could use some work. Unlike other exchanges, there’s no button allowing you to sell the entire contents of your wallet – the number needs to be entered manually. With the price of crypto where it is, that’s a lot of decimal places to remember.

You can also withdraw your coins, and send them to other wallets. There is a week-long cool down period after enabling the send feature. This is presumably for security reasons, but it ends up being massively inconvenient for the user.

If you have an issue with your account, good luck getting to a human. Customer support on Luno is difficult to access and requires digging. To contact Luno’s customer care team, users have the option of emailing them at support@luno.com, or submitting a ticket in the help centre, which also has extensive documentation that covers most problems.

Security on Luno complies with the industry standard. They have email based login verification, and it’s possible to set up 2FA with a mobile phone that uses Google Authenticator or Authy. They integrated the TRUST (Travel Rule Universal Solution Technology) system for advanced banking-grade safety when sending assets to external wallets.

Fees on Luno depend on the user’s country, and can differ wildly. One major downside is the presence of inactivity fees buried deep in the Terms and Conditions (which I’m sure everyone reads). Users storing local currency in a wallet for a period exceeding three months face a USD 2.00 fee per month. Yikes!

Registered with the FCA for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance, though specific high-risk features (staking/rewards) remain restricted for UK residents due to 2024/25 marketing regulations.

Overall, our Luno review is positive, though there are plenty of things that could be improved. On the regulatory front, Luno never obtained MiCA authorization and closed its European accounts at the end of August 2026, leaving a business built around Africa and Southeast Asia.

Luno’s Remaining Authorizations

Luno’s remaining authorisations cluster in the markets it says it will keep. The company holds a Financial Sector Conduct Authority license in South Africa, Recognised Market Operator status for digital assets from the Securities Commission in Malaysia, an OJK license as a Digital Financial Asset Trader in Indonesia, granted on 25 May 2026, and AUSTRAC registration in Australia. Its United Kingdom position runs through Financial Conduct Authority registration for anti-money-laundering purposes, which is a narrower permission than the authorisation the incoming regime will require.

The British timetable is worth stating, because Luno’s headquarters sits in London. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026 were made on 4 February 2026, the FCA published its final rules and guidance on 30 June 2026, and the new regime is expected to come into force on 25 October 2027. Firms registered only under the money laundering regulations will need full authorisation to continue serving United Kingdom clients after that date, so Luno’s British permission is a transitional one.

Supported fiat currencies show as IDR, MYR, NGN and ZAR on third-party trackers, and Luno’s UK service funds accounts in GBP. The euro rail closed with the European wind-down.