The Demand for Crypto in Africa Is Driving Exponential Growth for Luno
The Demand for Crypto in Africa Is Driving Exponential Growth for Luno
The company has grown exponentially in 2021, with January 2021 seeing a 60% rise in app installs compared to December 2020 and a more than 3000% year-on-year increase compared to January 2020.
Luno's user base in Africa increased by 2.3 million to 4.7 million in 2020. Between January 2020 and January 2021, the company's app installs increased by 271% across the continent, outpacing its trading volume in Africa, which more than doubled from $555 million to $7 billion.
Luno's expansion reflects the broader consumer appetite for cryptocurrency in Africa and throughout the world, as the industry continues to establish a reputation for creating a sustainable financial infrastructure.
The cryptocurrency industry as a whole has had an incredible year of growth, fueled in large part by institutional investors embracing bitcoin for its store of value assets. The commodity, dubbed digital gold, has become more appealing to investors due to increased fiscal and monetary stimulus. Bitcoin's 2020 price increase was also accelerated by its global acceptance, which reached 100 million users in Q3 2020.
Over the last few years, infrastructure in regions of the world that historically could not afford the crypto industry has significantly improved. Luno was instrumental in these developments, especially in major African economies and Asia-Pacific. It allowed efficient markets for customers to exchange cryptocurrency safely and securely using local currency. Luno offered access to the crypto markets to 1.1 million Asians in 2020 alone, increasing its Asian client base by 300,000.
Luno’s acquired by Digital Currency Group (DCG)
Since being acquired by Digital Currency Group (DCG) in September 2020, Luno has seen a 167 percent rise in active users and a 119 percent increase in app installs. On January 25th, the average Luno user had over USD 7,000 in their pocket, up 56% from December 30th, 2020. Luno was listed among the top six cryptocurrency exchanges globally in the most recent CryptoCompare Exchange Benchmark, earning an AA ranking.
Marcus Swanepoel, a former Google software developer, founded the company in 2013. Today, the company employs approximately 400 people through London, South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Singapore, serving customers in 40 countries. Since March 2020, the company's workforce has grown by more than 10%.
Luno enters an exponential development phase in the first quarter of 2021. This development can be attributed to the simplicity of its online and mobile channels, including education, bank-grade security, self-regulation, and its constructive stance of collaborating with governments, regulators, and banks to expand global access to cryptocurrencies safely.
Tesla Bounce
This rise can also be due to the explosion of interest in cryptocurrencies in 2021, with Tesla investing in Bitcoin, BNY Mellon establishing a Crypto Unit, and Mastercard approving crypto payments.
Marcus Swanepoel, CEO and Co-Founder of Luno, said, "The last year has accelerated the global adoption of cryptocurrency." Retail adoption has accelerated to an almost fanatical level (With Tesla announcing they will start accepting Bitcoin as payment).
Pandemic and Education Accelerating Adoption
The pandemic has make the need for digital currencies to increase. At Luno, their goal is to inform people about cryptocurrencies and how to use them today and harness the technology's potential to upgrade the world's financial system in the long run. We want to make cryptocurrencies available to all, regardless of who they are or where they are located, in a safe and compliant manner. We anticipate continuing this rapid growth in 2021, putting us on track to meet our target of 1 billion customers by 2030. “
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