The company is dedicated to making it easier for users to interact with digital assets and allows for seamless crypto-fiat interchangeability. in addition to that, Luno has made it their mission to educate the lay consumer about digital assets, so much so that is rapidly becoming the gateway cryptocurrency platform for many new entrants in the territories it operates in.
The Story Of Luno
Luno started it’s life in 2013, as BitX. Formed in South Africa, the firm showed so much promise that it secured an early investment from South Africa based electronic payments giant PayU.
In early 2017, the company formerly re-branded to Luno (the name being derived from the popular crypto community catch phrase “Bitcoin is going to the moon”). Luno has ,since, moved their main base of operations the United Kingdom, while maintaining satellite offices in South Africa and Singapore to service their African and Asian customer base.
Supported Assets
Luno, unlike many of it’s counterparts, takes a minimalist approach to the number of assets listed on their platform. Opting to focus on securing user assets at the expense of market capitalisation (CoinMarketCap valued Luno’s market cap’ at about $3.7 million when last checked)
The platform supports Bitcoin and Ethereum, and recently added Bitcoin Cash to their list of digital assets on offer. The company is open to adding more assets to their platform in future and will select them according to a stringent checklist, as qualitative growth is more of a priority for Luno than taking on projects that may fail.
Supported Fiat Currencies
As previously mentioned, Luno operates on three continents, supported in 40 European Countries, two Asian and two African countries. The firm supports trading in 5 fiat currencies; Euro, Nigerian Naira (NGN), South African Rand (ZAR), Indonesian Rupee (IDR), and Malaysian Ringitt (MYR).
These are the jurisdictions in which Luno operates:
Europe: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
Outside of Europe, Luno’s services can be accessed in:
Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia
Africa: Nigeria, South Africa
Security
On the Security front, Luno offer near-bank-level security. Luno stores customer private keys in a cold storage facility it calls the Deep Freeze. Keeping the encrypted keys in various bank vaults and never allowing access to more than one bank vault per staff member.
In addition to that:
- Instant withdrawals are handled via a multi-sig hot wallet
- Multi-sig keys are required to execute transactions
- Two-factor Authentication required for acoojnt sign-in
- ID verification required for all traders who wish to use the exchange
- Luno conducts regular security and financial audits to ensure that everything remains up-to-book
Fees
Luno’s fee structure is dependent on the territory but requires no maker fees in any of the pairs available on the platform. Taker fees are a tad higher the most major exchanges, who can afford to charge 0.05% due to high trading volumes.
- BTC/EUR taker fees are set at 0.25%
- BTC/IDR taker fees are set at 0.20%
- BTC/MYR taker fees range from 1% for trade below 10BTC, 0.75% for trades above 10BTC, and 0.50% for trade above 10BTC. Fees same fees apply for BTC/ZAR and BTC/NGN trading pairs
- Crypto/Crypto trading fees are fix at 0.25%
The Platform & App
Luno’s web platform offers a complete trading suite, with all the bells and whistles that a seasoned trader requires. It requires no downloads and support both Windows & Mac PC’s
The mobile app, on the other hand, though sorely lacking in the Charting Tools department – only offering a basic chart interface – is a one-stop-shop for all of one’s crypto storage needs. The app enables users to send and receive crypto payments, as well as seamlessly exchange fiat for crypto and fiat for crypto. It has been described as the PayPal of the crypto ecosystem.
Conclusion
Luno has a proven track record and is a great platform for new entrants in to the crypto space to start off with. Their security measures are top notch and put some of the bigger digital assets platforms to shame.
Luno is, however, unregulated and though they operate according to the strict financial requirements of each jurisdiction they service. The firm does intent to correct this within the next few years as global financial regulators continue to adjust to accommodate digital assets.
One thing that might be a sore point for the more advanced trader is the lack of options in the way of trade-able crypto assets.
