Luno, a cryptocurrency company, has hit eight million customers (wallets). This is coming immediately after the company announced in April that it had reached seven million customers, with one million added in seven weeks. The company has said it witnessed a major surge in customers from four million in December 2020 to 5.1 million in May 2021. Africa is Luno’s largest market, and its recent figures reinforce this. In a statement, Luno’s General Manager for Africa, Marius Reitz said, “Across Africa, we’re witnessing a huge wave of retail investors step into the crypto market for the first time and that’s potentially due to easier access or the lower minimums required to purchase crypto.
“However, this isn’t just a trend that’s been taking off in Africa, it’s something that’s being replicated across all of our emerging markets but what sets the continent apart is a rapidly growing awareness of how crypto could be the ideal solution for Africa’s unique challenges.”
In May, Luno said it recorded trading volumes of $7bn in Africa alone, and its app installs have soared by 271 per cent on the continent since January 2020.
“Our research last year found 54 per cent of Africans are ready to adopt a global digital currency compared to 41 per cent in Asia and 35 per cent in Europe. This growing demand stems from an understanding that crypto can effectively solve major problems in Africa such as volatile currencies, costly payments and high inflation.
‘At Luno, we believe the core utility of cryptocurrencies to address these issues not only has the potential to completely upgrade Africa’s financial system, but will be a key driver in transforming cryptocurrencies from a niche technology to an essential feature of everyday life for all Africans.” Marius added.
Earlier this year, the company announced the launch of USDC, which is pegged to the US dollar. It marked a major breakthrough specifically for African users through not only enabling them to hedge against the volatility of local currencies, but also delivered an upgrade on the functionality of the US dollar by being faster and easier to move across the world.
