Luno’s customer base in Africa grew by 2.3mn to 4.7mn in 2020 and between January 2020 and January 2021, it saw a 271% surge in app downloads while its trading volume in Africa grew over 12x from $555mn to $7bn showing a rising demand for cryptocurrencies globally.
Luno hit 7 million customers worldwide just seven weeks after passing 6 million customers. Its exponential growth in Africa is due to the fact that it played enabled an efficient market for customers to trade crypto in a safe and secure way through local currency.
According to Marcus Swanepoel, CEO and Co-Founder of Luno: “The pandemic has exacerbated the need for digital currencies, and here at Luno, our mission is not only to help educate people about cryptocurrencies and how to use them today, but in the long run leverage the power of this technology to upgrade the world to a better financial system. We want to make cryptocurrencies accessible in a secure and compliant way to everyone, regardless of who they are or where they are located. In 2021, we expect to continue this exponential growth, on track to reaching our goal of 1 billion customers by 2030.“
In 2020 alone, Luno provided 1.1 million Asians access to the crypto markets, growing its Asian customer base by 300,000. Swanepoel added that the past twelve months hastened the adoption of crypto globally and retail adoption has been growing at an arguably even more fanatic pace including Tesla’s recent announcement that it will start accepting Bitcoin as payment.
Luno has seen the number of active users increase by 167%, whilst the number of app installs has increased 119%. As of the 25th of January, the average Luno user held over $7,000 USD in their wallet, up 56% from the 30th December 2020. Luno was ranked in the top six cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide in the latest CryptoCompare Exchange Benchmark, whilst also receiving the top tier AA rating.
Formerly Bitx, Luno was founded in 2013 by Marcus Swanepoel, a former investment banker, and Timothy Stranex and is headquartered in London. To the firm, 2021 marks the start of its exponential growth partly due to the simplicity of its online and mobile platforms, offering education, bank-grade security and self-regulation, along with its proactive stance of working with governments, regulators and banks. There is also huge interest surrounding cryptocurrencies in 2021 with the likes of Tesla investing in Bitcoin, US Bank BNY Mellon setting up a Crypto Unit, and Mastercard accepting crypto payments and the interest will continue to soar.
“Luno has seen phenomenal growth over the past 12 months and is one of the fastest-growing companies in the DCG family. We are proud to be part of this success and will continue to make significant investments to support Luno’s commitment to drive global economic and social change through the transformation of traditional financial services,” said CEO Barry Silbert from Digital Currency Group.
Luno was acquired by Digital Currency Group (DCG) in September of 2020 and is ranked in the top six cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide in the latest CryptoCompare Exchange Benchmark.