Naspers-owned crypto-currency exchange Luno says it now has three million customers (wallets) spanning 40 countries.
Despite Bitcoin’s volatility, crypto-currency trades continue to rise, notes Marius Reitz, Luno’s general manager in SA. “In the last month, more than R80 million worth of crypto-currency trades have been completed on Luno’s South African platform on a daily basis.”
Reitz elaborates: “South Africa is one of our strongest markets and appetite for crypto-currency trades is still growing – we are seeing new Luno customers learning about and buying crypto-currencies every day.
“Reaching three million wallets demonstrates the growing adoption of crypto-currencies across the globe and reinforces our aim of reimagining a financial system where money is cheaper, faster and safer with open and equal access for everyone."
Luno (formerly BitX) is a Bitcoin company headquartered in London, with offices in SA, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Singapore and 35 other European countries.
The company was founded in 2013 and the exchange was set up by Timothy Stranex, who previously worked for Google as a software engineer, and CEO Marcus Swanepoel, a former investment banker.
In addition to more customers, Luno has introduced Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on its exchange. The crypto-currency exchange also offers Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Luno says adding BCH enables its customers to buy, sell and store BCH on the platform.
“There are over 2 000 crypto-currencies in the market. We take our role as a trusted platform very seriously and have therefore always been cautious about new coins. We only add new coins once we are confident of their security, credibility and market traction.”
Although there has been customer growth, some existing Luno customers recently complained about being locked out of their accounts, leaving them without access to their funds when they need them.
Responding to the complaints at the time, Reitz explained Luno closely monitors accounts for clues and patterns of fraudulent activity in locations where fraud is higher than the benchmark the company has set, or where it has noticed a rise in fraud attempts.
He added that Luno has a “self-lock” feature which it includes in all notification e-mails which the customer can turn on if they suspect their account has been compromised.
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