• Average rating of 80% based on 9,221 reviews.
• Founded 11 years ago in 2012.
• Headquartered in the United Kingdom.
• Bitcoin (BTC) staking yield up to 1.5% APR.
Luno Crypto Platform
DeFinda Score™
| Staking Yields | |
| Loan Rates | |
| Established | |
| Reviews | |
| Risk Management | |
| Withdrawals | |
| Coverage | |
| Support |
Luno is a cryptocurrency platform that offers savings accounts, loans, and some exchange services. Luno offers savings rates up to 7.6% APR on deposits, with no hidden fees and instant access to your funds.
The platform was launched in 2013 by Marcus Swanepoel. The company was founded as BitX aiming to help adoption of Bitcoin in emerging markets and later changed its name to Luno which means moon in Esperanto. Luno was aquired by Digital Currency Group company when in 2020. The company is managing $21B USD with over 8 million users from more than 40+ countries. The company has 2.1M users in South Africa alone. The company is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and focuses on developing countries including South Africa, Nigeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Zambia. The company has raised almost $14M USD in fundings.
Luno is a good start for beginners. The platform is easy to use and offers a simple feature set. Luno offers both a web app and a mobile app both of which are easy to navigate. You can use the app to manage your crypto wallet, send and receive funds and exchange cryptocurrencies.
The platform supports a very limited selection of cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, BCH, and USDC. You are only able to earn savings interest on BTC, ETH and USDC deposits. Note that savings rates are not available on any currencies for UK customers.
Luno doesn’t provide loans for individuals. Loans are issued only for institutional customers.
You can transfer local fiat currency to your Luno account and then use those funds to buy any of the cryptocurrencies supported by Luno. Luno has partnered with several local money transfer businesses in Africa and Asia make transfers to Luno easier.
Similarly you can convert your cryptos back to local fiat currency and withdraw the fiat funds back to your traditional bank account for a small fee.
Deposit and withdrawal limits change depending on the country and verification level. Some countries require more verification, some don’t. There are different verification levels. For example if you complete 3rd degree verification in Indonesia, deposits and withdrawals are unlimited.
Luno has high security standards. Its web and phone apps feature two factor authentication and biometric id security features.
Luno stores most assets in deep freeze, multi-signature wallets with many layers to achieve the highest security for your cryptos. Deep freeze wallets are offline and offsite. The keys are generated and managed by Bitgo Custody, a leading crypto security company.
Pros
Easy to use mobile and web apps
Great for beginners
Strong support in a number of developing countries
Low exchange fees if you use the Luno exchange
Large, reputable business
Cons
Need to manually transfer funds to savings account to start earning interest
No loans available (except for large instituions)
Savings interest rates are variable so it is hard to know how much you will actually earn
Transfers of crypto out of your savings wallet sometimes take 24 hours
Very limited number of savings account currencies
DeFinda Score™
Staking Yields
Loan Rates
Established
Luno is one of the oldest and most well established crypto platforms. It was founded in 2012 which makes it 11 years old.
Luno has approximately 400 employees. That makes it one of the smaller crypto platforms by number of employees.
Luno has a total of approximately 21 billion USD of assets under management. Luno has one of the largest asset bases of all the crypto platforms.
Reviews
Luno has an average expert rating of 75% based on 49 expert reviews, and an average user rating of 80% based on 9,172 user reviews. Luno has over 5,000 reviews on Trustpilot, with an average user rating of 80%. Expert reviews include Hedge With Crypto (82%), Crypto Vantage (66%), 99 Bitcoins (82%) and Crypto Compare (74%).
Risk Management
Luno offers the usual security features to prevent unauthorised access to crypto assets. The majority of crypto assets are stored in cold storage, secured and insured by BitGo. A hot wallet is used to store working capital and this wallet is a three key multisignature wallet, meaning that more than one key is required to access the funds and each key is stored in a different, secure location. Two factor authentication is available within the Luno app to make access to your account more secure.
Luno employs Mazars, an accountancy firm, to independently verify that the value of the crypto assets stored with Luno do actually exist. An example of the report can be found here. This audit is undertaken quarterly. It should be noted that the the audit verifies that the total value of the assets currently held by Luno exceeds the total value of customer liabilities (deposits). This demonstrates that any loans that Luno has made of depositor's funds have been overcollareralised (i.e. Luno has secured collateral of a greater value than the loan amount before granting the loan). The audit does not consider the liquidity of those collateral assets, meaning how easy it would be to sell those assets at market value if Luno was forced to sell them to cover a bad debt.
In order to generate yield, Luno lends out funds via Genesis, the world's largest digital asset lender. The exact lending strategy used and types of loans issued is not clear, but some reassurance can be taken from that the all loans are granted through this provider and the Mazar's indpendent audit proves that Luno has overcollateralised its loans.
Luno has embraced regulation and sought to preempt regulatory obligations by implementing some of the anticpiate policies before they were forced to do so.
Luno are very careful to prevent unauthorised withdrawals. By default, withdrawals from your wallet are not enabled. You will need to manually enabled "send mode" to allow withdrawals, and as an additional security precaution, this takes 24 hours to be activated.
Withdrawals
WARNING: Crypto withdrawals are severely restricted in Europe to a maximum of 500 euros per week.
In order to make withdrawals from Luno you must first enable send mode on the app. Once you requested that this mode is enabled you will then need to wait 24 hours before the mode is enabled. Whilst this does provide extra security, it can be annoying if you want to withdraw the funds quickly and have not already enabled this mode.
In our tests, withdrawals were processed quickly once "send mode" had been enabled. Withdrawal requests were processed by Luno within a few minutes of the request being made and funds were normally received in less than a hour.
Luno does not charge withdrawal fees, however you do still have to pay the network fee to withdraw from the platform. This fee will be deducted form the amount that is sent.
There is no record of Luno ever having frozen withdrawals.
Coverage
Luno supports 10 different cryptocurrencies and 1 fiat currency. Key supported cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Coin, XRP, Cardano and Solana. Luno support for fiat currencies includes Pounds Sterling. The biggest crypto platforms offer support for over 330 different cryptocurrencies.
Support for a larger number of cryptocurrencies is helpful if you are looking for trading opportunities, but may be less important if your priority is long term investment in one of the major cryptos.
Support
Luno offers support by online chat, however they do not offer support by email or phone.
Luno Reviews
Luno has good reviews overall. The majority of the Trustpilot reviews are from African customers, who generally speaking seem to like the app. Users consistently like the security of the app and its ease of use. They like how the app is designed for total beginners and they weren’t made to feel like idiots when contacting customer service with basic questions.
Some of the most common complaints relate to people’s accounts being locked. These issues likely relate to the company’s Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures. It seems that these problems are arising because some of the African customers only have basic forms of ID which are sometimes difficult for Luno to verify. Some customers complained that they can’t use the app as they have no ID at all.
Some users have encountered issues with withdrawal delays. This appears to mainly relate to the withdrawal of fiat currencies. Many traditional banks are strict on checking funds received from crypto platforms. Issues such as mismatching account names can cause the withdrawal to be delayed.
The Luno Android app has far more reviews than the iphone app which shows just how popular Luno is on Android phones.
The overall impression from the reviews is that Luno is focused heavily on the African market. This is a great thing as it can bring the potential of cryptocurrencies to a part of the world where many people currently remain completely unbanked. The downside of focusing on Africa is the difficulty in interfacing with the complex and messy African banking and ID systems. This leads to a bad experience for some users who can’t provide good quality ID documents and long delays in transferring money between traditional banks and the platforms.
Based on a total of 9,221 reviews across the web for Luno we gave the platform an overall rating of 80%.
| Overall User Rating |
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9,172 reviews 9,172 |
| Trustpilot |
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5,226 reviews 5,226 |
| iphone App |
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3,400 reviews 3,400 |
| Hello Peter |
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356 reviews 356 |
| Android App |
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112 reviews 112 |
| Cryptowisser |
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71 reviews 71 |
| G2.com |
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4 reviews 4 |
| Crypto Geek |
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3 reviews 3 |
| Revain | ||
| ICO Rating | ||
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| Show 1 more user review ... | ||
| Overall Expert Rating |
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49 reviews 49 |
| Quick Penguin |
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| Coinlist |
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| Block News Africa |
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| Nigeria Bitcoin Community |
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| Hedge With Crypto |
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| 99 Bitcoins |
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| Crypto Testers |
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| Bit Compare |
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| Mobile App Daily |
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| Unblock |
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| Best Bitcoin Exchange |
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| Show 24 more expert reviews ... | ||
Luno YouTube Reviews
Luno Promo Codes & Vouchers
Luno Staking & Savings Accounts
- Interest rates up to 7.6% APR
- Only major crypto currencies are supported
- Interest calculated daily and paid out monthly
- All accounts are instant access
- Compound interest
Luno offers savings accounts in major cryptocurrencies and stable coins with interest rates up to 7.6% APR. Savings accounts are only available on BTC, ETH and USDC.
Luno quotes its savings accounts as target rates. They state that the actual rate achieved will vary around this target, sometimes being above it and sometimes below. Interest is accrued dail, paid out monthly and compounds every month after that.
To start earning interest you will need to open a new savings account within the Luno app. You can then transfer funds from your Luno crypto wallet to your savings wallet.
All the savings accounts offer instant access with no fixed terms, no hidden fees and unlimited deposits and withdrawals.
All Luno savings accounts payout interest in the same currency as you deposited. So if you deposit Bitcoin your interest will be paid in Bitcoin, if you deposit USDT, you will receive interest in USDT.
Luno was acquired by Digital Currency Group (DCG) in 2020 and partnered up with the Genesis Prime Brokerage company which is one of the leading crypto asset brokerage companies in the world. Partnership with Genesis provided a direct route to yield generation on deposits and increased the security of assets held within the company.
Unfortunately savings products are not available to users in the UK.
You can calculate your potential earnings on Luno using our Luno interest rate calculator.
Luno Loans
Luno does not provide loans for ordinary retailer customers. Loans are available for intuitional customers and savings deposits are loaned out via Genesis Trading to traders looking to trade on margin.
Luno Fees & Limits
Luno has no hidden fees. They charge no fees to deposit and withdraw crypto (except on very small deposits) and you make withdrawals from the platform any time you want. The minimum deposit and withdrawal size is $10 USD or an equivalent amount of local currency.
Deposits of Bitcoin below 0.0001 BTC do attract a transaction fee. No transaction fees are charged on deposits above this level.
Whilst no withdrawal fees are charged, the withdrawals will attract miner’s fees that will be deducted from the amount being sent.
Fiat withdrawals attract no fees.
The platform applies deposit and withdrawal limits depending on your verification level and country. There are three verification levels. Examples of fees by verification level in the UK are provided below:
Level 1 - Phone verification only. Deposits and withdrawals are capped at £1,000 for the lifetime of the account.
Level 2 - Photo of ID plus selfie photo. Deposits and withdrawals are capped at £5,000 per month.
Level 3 - Proof of address. Employment and source of funds details. No account limits.
Deposits can only be made by bank transfer. Deposits by debit or credit card are not permitted.
| Exchange maker fee | 0% |
| Exchange taker fee | 0.1% |
| Fiat deposit fee |
Free
|
| Fiat withdrawal fee |
Free
|
| Crypto deposit fee |
Free
|
| Crypto withdrawal fee | Varies according to current market |
| Fiat wallet withdrawal limit | No limit for fully verified users |
| Savings crypto account withdrawal limit | $120,000 USD per day, £600,000 USD per month |
| Savings fiat account withdrawal limit | No limit for fully verified users |
Luno Exchange
Basic exchange services are available within the Luno app. It is possible to instantly exchange cryptos for other cryptos or fiat currencies by using the Buy and Sell buttons within the app.
Luno also offers a fully comprehensive advanced cryptocurrency exchange. This exchange includes detailed price history charts, full order book details, multiple exchange pairs and advanced order types. The advanced exchange will be overwhelming for novice users, but for advanced users there are many features that will allow them to trade more efficiently and precisely.
Luno Debit Cards
Luno does not offer a debit card and we are not aware of any plans for the platform to start offering debit cards.
Luno Countries
As of 30 June 2022, savings products are no longer available to UK users due to regulatory reasons.
Luno's supports the following languages: English, French, Italian and Indonesian.
Luno's services are available in the following countries:
Luno Key Data
| Legal name | Luno Pte. Ltd |
| Year founded | 2,012 |
| Country incorporated in | Singapore |
| Headquarters country | United Kingdom |
| Decentralised |
No
|
| Number of employees | 400 |
| Number of users | 8,000,000 |
| Total assets under management | $21,000,000,000USD more ...$0USD |
| Withdrawal time in hours | 1hours more ...0hours |
| Savings accounts |
Yes
|
| Loans |
No
|
| Crypto to crypto exchange |
Yes
|
| Fiat to crypto exchange |
Yes
|
| Pro exchange marketplace |
No
|
| Peer to peer exchange |
No
|
| Margin trading |
No
|
| Corporate accounts |
Yes
|
| Instantly buy crypto with fiat |
Yes
|
| Integrated crypto wallet |
Yes
|
| Crypto withdrawals to private wallet |
Yes
|
| Fast account verification |
Yes
|
| Futures exchange |
No
|
| Cold storage |
Yes
|
| Cold storage custodian | BitGo |
| Two factor authentication |
Yes
|
| Know your customer |
Yes
|
| Credit check |
No
|
| Regulators | Luno embraces regulation and has worked closely with regulators in its target countries in Africa and more ... Asia. |
| Email support |
No
|
| Phone support |
No
|
| Chat support |
Yes
|
| Maker fee | 0% more ...0% |
| Taker fee | 0.1% more ...0% |
| Fiat deposit fee | Free |
| Fiat withdrawal fee | Free |
| Crypto deposit fee | Free |
| Withdrawal process | You must enable "send mode" before withdrawals can be made. This mode takes 24 hours to activate. Once more ... send mode is enabled withdrawals are processed quickly, normally within a few minutes. |
| Withdrawal time | 1 hours more ...0 hours |
| Crypto withdrawal fee | Varies according to current market |
| Savings crypto account withdrawal limit | $120,000 USD per day, £600,000 USD per month |
| Fiat wallet withdrawal limit | No limit for fully verified users |
| Savings fiat account withdrawal limit | No limit for fully verified users |
| Unsecured loans |
No
|
| Independent proof of reserves |
Yes
|
| Proof of reserves | Undertaken quarterly by Mazers |
Useful Links
Luno Contact Details
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