{"id":583973,"date":"2025-02-26T11:59:47","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T09:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=583973"},"modified":"2025-02-26T12:40:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T10:40:58","slug":"the-men-behind-south-africas-crypto-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cryptocurrency\/583973-the-men-behind-south-africas-crypto-giant.html","title":{"rendered":"The men behind South Africa’s crypto giant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The two main brains behind homegrown cryptocurrency exchange Luno are Marcus Swanepoel and Timothy Stranex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swanepoel and Stranex served as the highly successful company’s executive and technological chiefs for nearly a decade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of Luno starts in 2013 when the duo and two other co-founders Carel van Wyk and Francois Paul saw an opportunity to make Bitcoin trading accessible to more South Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swanepoel completed an accounting degree at Stellenbosh University in 2002 and a postgraduate diploma in accounting at the University of Cape Town in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon starting Luno, he had come off two years working at the leveraged finance division of Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, after stints at Morgan Stanley and 3i in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stranex had four years of experience working as a software engineer at Google in Zurich, Switzerland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before beginning his career, Stranex obtained a University of Cape Town BSc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luno was originally founded as Switchless and aimed to build blockchain systems for major financial institutions, including the first fully integrated Bitcoin system for Standard Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the team realised that the many misconceptions around what blockchain technology could do meant that banks were taking long to embrace the technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They pivoted towards crypto trading with the launch of the BitX exchange in 2014. In that same year, the exchange expanded its services into Nigeria, Malaysia, and Indonesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, South African tech and media giant Naspers invested $3 million into BitX in its first funding round. Other early investors included Digital Currency Group (DCG) and Ventura. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2016, the BitX team consisted of 15 staff and its Android mobile app had amassed 100,000 downloads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exchange’s rebranding to Luno happened at the start of 2017 and formed part of its plan to move beyond just Bitcoin trading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added support for other cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum and Litecoin, and its expansion into more countries picked up pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, Luno reported that it doubled its app users after adopting Bitcoin’s move to Segregated Witness (Segwit). It also launched offices in Johannesburg and London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The year thereafter, the company closed a second funding round with $9 million, expanded into Europe, and reached 1 million Google Play Store downloads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also launched the Luno 2.0 platform with support for Bitcoin Cash among the major new features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, it added nearly a million more customers and processed almost $3 billion (R44 billion at the time) in trades. That amount was already exceeded in just the first few months of 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Timothy Stranex (left) and Marcus Swanepoel (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In September 2020, DCG \u2014 one of Luno’s earliest investors and owner of major exchange CoinDesk \u2014 acquired the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stranex quietly departed from his roughly decade-long position as Luno’s chief technology officer in December 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His exit came after the company announced mass lay-offs amid a struggling crypto market, although Luno denied his resignation was linked to the cost-cutting exercise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said Stranex was pursuing personal projects but he has not publicly shared any details about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swanepoel served as CEO for only a few months longer, before switching to the role of executive chairman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He left the company at the end of 2023 and founded Rokk, a technology, information, and Internet startup focused on mental well-being. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from being backed by major European venture firms LocalGlobe and Balderton, little else is known about the project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
The Luno team when Swanepoel was still CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By 2024, Luno’s customer base stood at more than 12 million in over 40 countries. Four million of these were South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key to its local success has been familiarising everyday South Africans with crypto through workshops and the use of celebrities and recognisable figures for marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its advertisements have included Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus, Springbok captain Siya Kolisi, and comedian Schalk Bezuidenhout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from its country of origin and the United Kingdom, it operates offices in Australia, France, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is estimated to have somewhere around 500 to 1,000 employees and was advertising 12 positions at the time of publication, 10 of which were in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luno regards itself as the “safest and most compliant” crypto investment platform in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We take a regulation-first approach, because we believe that\u2019s the best way to keep you and your investment safe.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are photos of Luno events and staff through the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
One of the early Bitcoin for Beginners events hosted by Luno in 2017. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Another cryptocurrency investment information session in November 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Well-known economist Dawie Roodt speaking at a Luno event in October 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Guest having a laugh at Luno event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Luno’s co-founder and CEO Marcus Swanepoel with various Luno employees and guest speakers at an event in October 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Part of Luno’s team that ran in the Cape Town Marathon in 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Luno South Africa’s women in August 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
Luno South Africa’s women in March 2018<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Luno is a sponsor of the Bulls rugby team.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Luno has often associated itself with brands familiar to South Africa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Logos of BitX, the predecessor to Luno<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With more than 12 million customers in 40 countries, Luno is one of South Africa’s biggest crypto successes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":469369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44696],"tags":[25991,67759,43378,48303,42992,58568,51889],"class_list":["post-583973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-bitx","tag-crypto","tag-cryptocurrencies","tag-cryptocurrency-exchanges","tag-luno","tag-marcus-swanepoel","tag-timothy-stranex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583973"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583973"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":584274,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583973\/revisions\/584274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}