Luno review: a beginner-friendly, licensed exchange with offline custody and no major breach, but no proof of reserves, a 2% Instant Buy, slow support and a retreat from Europe and other regions.

Luno has a long operating record with no major breach reported, but it offers no verifiable proof of reserves and it is in the middle of a messy partial wind-down. Luno’s safety pages describe offline storage with multisignature technology and air-gapped keys in a managed vault, and CryptoSlate (updated October 2026) reports that Luno says 95% or more of customer crypto is kept in cold storage with client funds segregated. Luno states that its systems are certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022, and two-factor authentication through an authenticator app is required. CryptoSlate found no major breach or insolvency event as of mid-2026, only operator-acknowledged status-page incidents such as a withdrawal-processing failure affecting Kenya. It also found no user-verifiable proof of reserves or third-party attestation and no publicly disclosed insurance. In Malaysia, a court awarded a user RM700,000 over unauthorised transactions; Luno said its security measures worked as intended and that the user’s details and device had been compromised (Malay Mail, iMoney). The wind-down raises its own custody concern: for customers in exited regions, crypto transfers ended on June 29, 2026, forcing sales before the August 31 deadline.

Luno is licensed or registered in more of its markets than most rivals, but it is shrinking that footprint. Its own licences page lists Luno Malaysia as a Recognized Market Operator licensed by the Securities Commission Malaysia (full approval in 2019, the first in the country), Luno Proprietary Ltd as an authorised financial services provider in South Africa (the FSCA awarded Luno its licence in April 2024, among the first dedicated crypto providers), PT Luno Indonesia as a registered crypto trader (originally with Bappebti; CryptoSlate describes the licence as now held with the OJK), Luno Fintech Nigeria as registered with the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, and Luno Australia as an AUSTRAC-registered digital currency exchange. In Nigeria, Luno received approval in principle for the SEC’s incubation programme in 2026; Techpoint calls it the first global exchange admitted. In Europe the position has reversed: Luno holds no MiCA authorisation and is closing accounts for EU customers by September 1, 2026, and WhereLegalCrypto notes that its UK registration with the FCA covers money-laundering supervision only. CryptoSlate says Australia and other non-core markets are part of the wind-down, and Luno has not named every region.

Luno’s order-book fees are modest, but the main app’s Instant Buy is expensive. CryptoSlate (October 2026) reports Instant Buy/Sell at 2% in South Africa, Malaysia and Nigeria, and entry-tier exchange fees of 0.40% maker and 0.60% taker for South African ZAR markets, 0.35% and 0.60% in Malaysia, and 0.10% and 0.10% for some Nigerian pairs, with crypto-to-crypto pairs in South Africa from 0.08% and 0.10%. A second CryptoSlate snippet puts the South African Instant Buy spread at 1%, and a Malaysian guide (checked June 2026) gives 0.25% to 0.35% maker and 0.25% to 0.50% taker, so the figures conflict. Older sources show a 0% maker fee and taker fees from 0.03% to 0.10%, which no longer appear to match current schedules. Card deposits run about 3.5% to 3.9%, bank transfers are free in most markets, and crypto withdrawals are network fees only. Luno ran a zero exchange-fee promotion in Nigeria from April 23 to June 22, 2026. For customers left in closed regions, a $2 monthly inactivity fee applies from September 2026 and a $50 monthly dormancy fee from December.

Coverage is limited and conflicting. Luno’s overview lists 61+ assets, but CryptoSlate could name only a selective lineup of 12 (BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, BCH, SOL, ADA, USDT, USDC, EURC, PYUSD and PAXG), CryptoTicker counted 19 cryptocurrencies, and Luno Malaysia said in March 2026 that it had listed 29 new assets for a total of 51. The product set is broader than the coin list: staking in Malaysia, Nigeria and South Africa (reported net yields of up to about 11% to 12%, with BTC, LTC and BCH excluded), tokenised equities, commodities and exchange-traded funds in the retail app, daily prediction markets in South Africa and Nigeria, and the Luno Pay spending product. There are no futures, perpetuals or margin products and no copy trading.

Luno is built for beginners. Hello Peter reviewers praise a clean interface, fast navigation and direct bank deposits, and CryptoSlate and Finder describe a simple app with bank transfers in most markets. The retail business serves more than 16 million users across Africa and Asia-Pacific (company-reported), and it has added tokenised equities, ETFs and prediction markets inside the same app. The downsides are the cost of the easy path (the 2% Instant Buy) and the churn: Luno is exiting several regions, ending GBP Faster Payments and EUR SEPA rails, and restructuring around three units after cutting 20% of its global staff on July 28, 2026. G2 shows 3.8 out of 5 on 12 reviews and GetApp 4.2 out of 5 on 26.

Support is below average. TradingFinder (older data) cited 3.0 out of 5 on more than 6,400 Trustpilot reviews, while CryptoSlate scored Luno 4.9 out of 10 overall and labelled it poor, describing self-service plus email and form tickets, no live phone, and slow resolution on account locks, closures and stuck withdrawals. Hello Peter reviews carry examples of users locked out after a phone-number change who describe looping automated replies from the support chatbot. These are individual reports we could not verify. On the positive side, Luno publishes a formal complaints process in which a complaints officer acknowledges a complaint within three business days and a committee decides within 20 business days, and it points users to external adjudicators.

Luno is repositioning from a retail app to a payments and infrastructure company, which gives it a real, if unproven, ecosystem. CEO James Lanigan said on July 28, 2026 that it is reorganising into three units: the consumer platform plus a B2B API that lets partners offer white-labelled trading, custody and compliance (Discovery Bank is named as one partner); local-currency stablecoins, led by Zaru, a rand-backed stablecoin launched in February 2026; and an institutional over-the-counter arm for high-volume conversions and cross-border settlement. Luno Pay says users can spend crypto at 700,000 merchants in South Africa (company-reported). Digital Currency Group has been an investor since the 2014 seed round and acquired Luno outright in September 2020. The restructuring is a bet, not a result, and the company has now cut staff twice, 35% in January 2023 and 20% in July 2026.