Luno is a system for trading Ethereum and Bitcoin, and it is available throughout the world, but the main network is located only in Zambia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Nigeria. It is not popular in the US and other developed countries because of the limited list of supported countries, but still, it requires a full review. In this article, you will learn more about the Luno exchange, its pros and cons for personal and company trading, Luno wallet, and the trading strategies of this app.
Short Luno Exchange Review
As you may know, such countries as Nigeria, Malasia, and some other developing countries do not have access to the major part of cryptocurrency exchanges. On the opposite, Luno is the one that provides services for these excluded countries. However, the variety of cryptocurrencies for trading is not so huge as on Binance, but the two most popular ones are available there — Ethereum and Bitcoin.
Sometimes such unpopular platforms offer more beneficial fees than developed ones, and commissions and withdrawal fees on Luno can be competitive in the industry of crypto exchanges. The only problem is that it does not have a strict and accurate schedule of fees, so you may be misled by some commissions. You should always check the fee you will pay in advance to prevent undesired problems.
In this Luno review, we will discuss all aspects of cryptocurrencies with this exchange and especially these topics:
- Description of Luno
- Scope of services on Luno
- Size of fees
- Supported currencies and forms of payment
- Entry conditions and limits
- Geographical limits
- Reviews of users and support system
- Extra information about Luno
Description of Luno
Luno has three departments globally — Cape Town, Singapore, and London, and the main office based in the UK. Luno was introduced into the market in 2016, but before that, it was known as BitX from 2013.
More than three million people from more than 40 countries trade and earn money with the Luno exchange. It requires a staff of more than 100 workers, and such huge numbers bring Luno a large profit.
Luno has a big net of investors such as Digital Currency Group, Ventura Capital, and some others. They invested more than 13 million dollars in the company that made it developing each year. Nowadays market capitalization of Luno equals $3.7, which is small in comparison to popular bitcoin exchanges.
Scope of services on Luno
Luno is suitable for both basic trading operations and advanced ones because it provides a wide variety of services:
- Crypto trading
- Crypto wallet
- API
- Brokerage tools
The interface of Luno is easy to understand because it looks like a dashboard with some infographics and several pages for different operations: trading, settings, statistics about user’s account.
Brokerage services
The most popular service on every exchange app is buying or selling bitcoin or other crypto coins, and Luno’s design makes it convenient for every user to perform these operations. Besides, one of the main Luno limitations is that it presents mainly Bitcoin and Ethereum for crypto exchange, so you will be able to work only with these crypto coins.
The process of selling and buying crypto is simple with Luno — they transfer coins directly to your wallet and take the commission from the amount of transaction.
The disadvantage of Luno is that size of transactional fees depends on plenty of factors such as the size of transfer and country. That is why you should be careful and check the size of the commission every time you make any operations with your money.
Trading services
You can use Luno as a trading platform for the exchange of bitcoin and fiat currencies. The cryptocurrency exchange is a convenient service with plenty of trading features that you can set by yourself, analytical reports, graphs, and API access. So, Luno does in-depth researches for clients to provide a comprehensive review of the industry.
The trading volume of Luno is not so big as on trading platforms that are concentrated in developed countries. Volumes in developing countries are smaller, and it makes this trading platform less popular in the US and Europe.
Trading fees are comparable to other platforms, and the fee system is focused on market makers.
Services for businesses
Moreover, Luno offers business companies to trade securely for the organization. Usually, this service is available only for startups and trading firms that are interested in earning money in bitcoin or other crypto or receiving some transactions in Bitcoin or Ethereum.
If your business uses crypto in its financial operations, Luno is a beneficial exchange as it can provide necessary services for your company, allows you to use API for automated strategies, and has a reliable security system.
Mobile app
By the way, you can download a mobile app with your Luno wallet connected to your Luno account. Application is available on IOS and Android and is convenient to use as you will have access to your Bitcoin wallet directly from your smartphone. However, you will not be able to control your bitcoins from the mobile Luno wallet because you should use a full version of the trading platform to apply your private key.
Size of fees
There are four types of fees that Luno can withdraw from your wallet depending on the type of operation:
- Withdrawal fee
- Deposit fee
- Transaction fee
- Transfers of fees to other addresses
The system works like a taker maker exchange platform when the fee is taken only from buyers. You can get a detailed description of this system here. The size of the fee still depends on the country and currency the buyer uses, and it can vary from 0.25% to 1% of the transaction.
The same situation is with instant purchases, and this is why you should always check the fee before the completion of the transaction. If you skip this step, you will be surprised by the amount Lwithdrawsdraw from your wallet for some operations.
Check this reference to know more about the fee system of Luno.
Supported currencies and forms of payment
The list of cryptocurrencies that Luno supports is short in comparison to other platforms:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ripple (XRP)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
As regards fiat currencies, you can deposit or withdraw money in these:
- Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
- Euro (EUR)
- Indonesian Rupiah (IDR)
- South African Rand (ZAR)
- Nigerian Naira (NGN)
- British Pound (GBP)
- Ugandan Shilling (UGX)
- Polish Zloty (PLN)
- Zambian Kwacha (ZMV)
Besides, Luno supports more than 10 payment methods:
- Card deposit
- Bank transfer
- Cash deposit penalty
- Flutterwave
- iDeal
- GT bank transfer
- SEPA
- Interbank Giro
- EFT
- Sofort
- Credit or debit card
- Paystack
Pay attention to the fact that some of these payment methods are available only for particular currencies. Furthermore, fees are different for these methods, so it is better to learn the commission size in advance.
By the way, Luno offers free charge payments with debit or credit cards in Euros. It is a beneficial opportunity for those who want to deposit in Euros because other platforms usually take up to a 5% withdrawal fee for this operation.
Entry conditions and limits
Before the start of trading or speculating with bitcoin or another crypto, you should complete the verification process. The level of identity verification will influence the limits for operation for your account.
There are four account levels based on the degree of verification process on Luno:
- Stage 1 (email confirmation) — all withdrawings and deposits are prohibited;
- Stage 2 (telephone confirmation) — withdrawings and deposits for no more than 1000 Euros;
- Stage 3 (ID confirmation) — withdrawings and deposits for no more than 5000 Euros per month;
- Stage 4 (residence confirmation) — withdrawings and deposits for no more than 100,000 Euros per month.
Moreover, instant purchases also have limits on the size of one transaction — no more than 8,000 Euros per one purchase.
Geographical limits
Users from 35 European countries and 5 developing ones can use Luno for trading and any other operations with crypto:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Zambia.
Reviews of users and support system
If you have any questions regarding your Luno account or the exchange platform itself, you can visit the page of the help center and search for your problem in the list of FAQs. Also, you can write an email to their support team if your question is specific.
However, there are many negative reviews about the Luno support center, and its grade is “Poor” on the TrustPilot website. To tell the truth, almost every exchange company in this industry does not provide sufficient support to clients and receives low scores for customer support. For instance, the same situation happens even with customer support of known platforms such as Coinbase and Bitstamp, and their rating becomes lower because of the lack of attention to this sphere.
Another topic of complaints from customers is that Luno blocks some accounts or the time of transactions is too long. Luno is trying to take into consideration these reviews and respond to them on the forums.
Extra information about Luno
Security of funds on Luno
Luno has a reputation as a reliable exchange app because it has not had hacks and losses of crypto. The security of your money is supplied by additional features:
- Freezing of the “Send” function — if your account is hacked and some strange transactions are made from it, you can disable the “Send” feature, and the exchange platform will forbid any outgoing transactions for 24 hours.
- Two-factor authentication (2fa) — Luno provides an option when you can secure your account by two stages of validating. You will need to log into your Luno account with a password and enter the code that you will receive through the app.
- Touch ID — option for users of devices with iOS that is validating their personality with fingerprints.
Bitcoin wallet
Luno is a crypto exchange, and it does not allow users to create bitcoin wallets on it. So, you can keep your wallets on this exchange platform, but you will not have private keys for your Luno wallet.
Start Luno account
The process of registration for the purchase of bitcoin or any other crypto is easy and does not require a lot of time, but it depends on the stage of verification you prefer. This is the algorithm of registration on Luno:
- Download or open the Luno platform in the browser and sign up for it.
- Complete verification process with all necessary documents and data.
- Deposit money from your card or another wallet to Luno.
- Purchase crypto.
If you have already had a Luno account, you can skip the step of the sign-up and just fill in your entering data and start trading Bitcoin, Ethereum, or some other types of coins.
Security of your bank account
Do not worry about your bank account even if you enter your bank verification number (BVN) because Luno will not have access to your money in any case. Moreover, no one will know your BVN because all your data is encrypted on Luno.
Banks of Nigeria created BVNs to avoid frauds and attacks on the bank accounts of their clients. As Luno is an exchange platform for financial operations, they do not allow to make any transactions or purchases without BVN for Nigerian people.
Besides, BVN is helpful for the work of Luno because it adds another level of security to the already provided one. Also, it can facilitate the work of Luno and help you to restore your account in case you forget your password or other registration data.
Conclusion
Luno fits the market of developing countries perfectly because it has a variety of available fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies that are in demand in these places. This exchange of cryptocurrencies does not want to be at the top of world platforms but just provides all necessary services for crypto trading to emerging markets.
Luno has a high-quality security system with total protection of data and funds and provides a lot of options for both beginners and experienced traders. Geographical restrictions of this exchange platform are not a disadvantage but a unique feature of cryptocurrency exchange because they are trying to support markets of lagging parts of the world. So, if you are living in Europe or South Africa, Luno can be a convenient option for you.
The only unfavorable part of Luno is that it does not have a stable schedule of fees, and clients should always double-check the commission size. The size of deposit and withdrawal fees is set according to your location, currency, and size of the transaction. Make sure you know the fee schedule for your case to avoid unwanted losses.
In case you still have questions about this platform after reading Luno’s review, you can ask them in the comments or share your experience of working with this trading platform.
FAQs
Is Luno safe and legit?
Luno is a reliable platform for trading because they use multi-stage security systems, including two-factor authentication and verification process. As regards the legality of Luno, there are no restrictions connected to it in supported countries listed in this Luno review. If you want to be sure about it, you can check laws concerning crypto trading in your country.
Can you make money with Luno?
You can speculate on the price of cryptocurrencies and make a profit from it. However, you can have losses as well. You should scan the market of interest for your cryptocurrencies to make purchases beneficial for you.
Why is Luno so expensive?
Luno takes fees that are comparable to other crypto exchanges, but sometimes they are higher than average prices. It can be connected with the focus of Luno on the specific market of South Africa because few platforms support these countries.
What are Luno fees?
The Schedule of Luno fees is not stable and strict — it is one of the main drawbacks of this bitcoin exchange. The size of the commission can vary according to its type: withdrawal fees, deposit fees, and based on the country and size of the transaction. Be careful while doing transactions and check prices in advance.
