Cryptocurrency is still growing in SA, but it’s far from popular

• Luno reports that 530 000 locals have joined the platform in the last year.
• Luno Pay has processed some 50 000 transactions amounting to R30 million since the solution launched in November 2024.
• While impressive, the number of users is small relative to the total population of South Africa highlighting just how far crypto still has to go before becoming mainstream.

Cryptocurrency exchange Luno, which was born right here in South Africa, says that over the last 12 months, 530 000 new users have signed up to the platform, bringing the local contingent of crypto investors to 6.3 million.

Assuming that every user on Luno’s platform is unique (which is quite a stretch but the language it uses in a press release we were sent this morning suggests as much) this means that 9.8 percent of South Africa’s 64.01 million citizens are using Luno. While that is a decent number of users, it’s not exactly a figure that would inspire retailers to start accepting cryptocurrency en masse. There are some solutions that make this possible but until we’re able to spend our magical internet money at the corner store, we’re holding off on saying cryptocurrency use is widespread.

However, growth is growth no matter how small and Luno is continuing to capitalise on this growth. The company reports that since launching in November 2024, 50 000 payments have been made using Luno Pay, for a total transaction volume of R30 million across 1 700 merchants. That sounds substantial but Sixty60 alone processed R18.9 billion in transactions between June 2024 and June 2025.

Another reason Luno may be experience such great growth are the recently introduced tokenised stocks.

“19,000 South African customers have so far invested in xStocks with Nvidia (NVDAx), the clear favourite, with over 3,000 customers currently holding the stock. Meta (METAx), the S&P 500 ETF (SPYx), and Apple (AAPLx) are also popular,” said Luno South Africa country manager Christo de Wit.

That is, again, a small percentage of Luno’s millions of local users but this product is new and attracting 19 000 users is admirable.

However, Bitcoin continues to be the main reason folks head to Luno although XRP, Ethereum and even Dogecoin are popular pickups for users. As for how those users are, 64 percent are men, 36 percent women and 37 percent are between 25 and 34. We’re not trying to tar everybody with the same brush but these demographics reveal why altcoins and memecoins are doing so well on Luno.

However, the company says that local cryptobros are slightly more discerning than they seem.

“South Africans are increasingly sophisticated in their crypto strategies with staking showing immense growth this past year, with Luno now offering 6 staking wallets. It allows you to earn rewards on your crypto holdings by putting your crypto aside for a period of time. Ethereum is the most popular for staking, while Solana and Cardano follow as the second and third most staked cryptocurrencies. This trend toward earning passive income from crypto holdings suggests South Africans view crypto assets as long-term investments rather than just speculative trading vehicles. Luno also recently launched USDC Earn, which generates an annual reward of up to 3.5% on USDC,” Luno writes in a press release.

Again, cryptocurrency is still small in South Africa but it seems that Luno continues to appeal to locals who want to dip their toes into the sector.