Home-grown crypto-currency exchange Luno now has nine million customers spanning over 40 countries.
Luno says it added one million new customers in the four months since June, with 30% of these based in SA.
Marius Reitz, Luno GM for Africa, comments: “The average value of first deposits made by our million new customers is around R550.
“Most new customers (67%) bought Bitcoin, while 43% bought Ripple and 20% bought Ethereum. Of the new customers, 37% are aged between 18 and 24, and gender splits align with trends in financial services − almost three-quarters (71%) are male.”
Luno was founded in 2013 by two South Africans: Marcus Swanepoel, a former investment banker, and Timothy Stranex, who previously worked for Google as a software engineer.
Last year, it was acquired by Digital Currency Group, the world’s largest blockchain investor.
In April, the crypto exchange revealed it had achieved 300% year-on-year growth compared to January 2020, and recorded $8.3 billion (R121 billion) in transactions worldwide.
Says Reitz: “As we hit the nine million customer mark, it is a fitting symbol that Luno’s logo now adorns an iconic building in Cape Town’s unofficial financial district on the foreshore.
“Staff numbers have swelled to over 600 across the UK, South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Australia and Singapore, and we are actively hiring over 60 specialists.”
Reitz points out that it took five years for Luno to build a base of its first one million customers in 2017. “Luno’s growth has accelerated significantly since then. In the last year alone, we have added over 3.6 million new customers.”
Luno reveals it is targeting a billion customers by 2030.
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