Luno beats Binance in South Africa

MyBroadband’s H2 2024 consumer technology survey revealed that Luno is the preferred crypto exchange in South Africa, followed by Binance and AltCoinTrader.

MyBroadband conducts regular consumer perception surveys to gain insights into the ICT trends in South Africa.

The latest survey was conducted in August 2024 and was completed by 2,233 South African technology enthusiasts.

Most respondents were technology decision-makers in their companies and households, making the results important for tracking trends in the local IT and telecoms market.

Respondents were asked which exchange they preferred to trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as part of the survey.

Luno was a clear favourite with 64% of the vote, followed by Binance at 21% and AltCoinTrader at 6%.

Initially known as Switchless, Luno was founded in 2013 by four South Africans.

They included former investment banker Marcus Swanepoel and Timothy Stranex, who had previously worked for Google as a software engineer.

The other two cofounders are Carel van Wyk and Francois Paul, although they left early to pursue other interests.

Van Wyk has since launched Moneybadger (formerly CryptoConvert), which developed the system Pick n Pay uses to accept Bitcoin at its stores.

As Switchless, the team focused on building blockchain systems for large financial institutions.

They decided to focus on the value of blockchains as decentralised cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum.

They launched the BitX exchange in South Africa to offer consumers cryptocurrency trading services. In 2014, it was expanded into Indonesia, Malaysia, and Nigeria.

In 2020, Luno was acquired by Digital Currency Group (DCG), a global business that builds, buys, and invests in blockchain companies.

Digital Currency Group is based in New York and owns a wide portfolio of cryptocurrency companies, including CoinDesk, Genesis, Foundry, and Grayscale Investments.

Today, Luno is an independent operating subsidiary of DCG with offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg, London, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Lagos, and Sydney.

In 2022, Blockchain and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Binance launched a fiat gateway for South African rand.

Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. It said the move expanded its product offerings and bolstered its regional local presence.

Binance has increased its awareness in South Africa, with a six percentage point increase in its popularity as the preferred crypto exchange over the last six months.

The chart below shows the results of MyBroadband’s H2 2024 consumer technology survey regarding crypto exchanges.