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Luno, the cryptocurrency exchange that started in South Africa and is now owned by US-based Digital Currency Group, is cutting 20% of its global headcount and reorganising the business into three separate units, CEO James Lanigan said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The company did not disclose how many employees are affected. It said staff were notified individually on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
South African jobs are among those going, but Luno would not say how many.<\/p>\n
It is a decision we\u2019ve had to make \u2026 which is to build a structure that is sustainable and focused<\/p>\n
\u201cLuno is running the required, thorough consultation process with all affected South Africa employees and is not in a position to confirm precise numbers at this stage,\u201d a spokesman told TechCentral.<\/p>\n
In South Africa, dismissals for operational requirements are governed by section 189 of the Labour Relations Act, which obliges employers to consult affected staff before retrenchments take effect.<\/p>\n
Luno is headquartered in London and has operations across Africa and Asia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a very difficult decision, and we did not take it lightly,\u201d Lanigan said. \u201cWe have incredible people across this organisation, and saying goodbye to colleagues who have contributed so much is hard. But it is a decision we\u2019ve had to make \u2013 for our customers, our remaining team and our long-term mission \u2013 which is to build a structure that is sustainable and focused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why now?<\/p>\n
Luno attributed the cuts to two things: a downturn in retail crypto trading, which it described as a phase of a cycle it has seen repeatedly since its founding in 2013, and its own investment in automation. The company said it \u201cis continuing to integrate and develop tools that are rapidly changing the resource model required to run the business effectively\u201d, and that a leaner structure was therefore \u201cboth necessary and appropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is the second round of deep cuts at the company in three and a half years. In January 2023, at the depth of the last crypto winter, Luno axed 35% of its workforce<\/a> \u2014 then about 960 people \u2014 affecting more than 330 staff. \u201c2022 has been an incredibly tough year for the broader tech industry and in particular the crypto market,\u201d the company said at the time.<\/p>\n Read: Bitcoin at $65\u00a0000: stalled, or simply early?<\/a><\/p>\n Lanigan, previously chief operating officer, was elevated to CEO<\/a> two months after those cuts, replacing co-founder Marcus Swanepoel, who moved to executive chairman. Digital Currency Group, an investor in Luno since its 2014 seed round, acquired the company outright<\/a> in September 2020.<\/p>\n The first of the three units combines Luno\u2019s existing retail exchange with a new \u201ccrypto as a service\u201d offering. The retail business serves more than 16 million users across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, with trading, staking and payment products spanning crypto as well as tokenised equities, commodities and exchange-traded funds.<\/p>\n The service extension opens that infrastructure to partners through an API, letting them offer crypto under their own brands while Luno supplies the liquidity, custody, wallet infrastructure and compliance behind it.<\/p>\n The template is Discovery Bank, which in November 2025 began offering crypto trading through Luno<\/a>, giving its clients access to more than 50 cryptocurrencies inside the banking app. Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner said at the time the move was \u201ca clear signal that crypto is moving from a niche asset and becoming a mainstream investment\u201d.<\/p>\n The second unit covers stablecoins and wallet infrastructure, and rests on Luno\u2019s observation that 98% of global stablecoin supply is denominated in US dollars.<\/p>\n The three business lines are not separate companies \u2013 they are three expressions of a single, shared platform<\/p>\n![\"Luno\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1785247870_643_luno-1500-800.jpg\")
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