Formerly known as BitX, Luno is one of the oldest Bitcoin exchanges in the World. The UK-based company was established in 2013 at a time when most people hadn’t heard of the digital currency and those who had were mostly not interested. With time, Luno has built a reputation for being one of the most reliable, safe and affordable Bitcoin exchanges in the World. Ironically, their market share remains relatively small and trading rarely exceeds half a million dollars. This could be because, for the longest time, Luno was only dealing with bitcoins, leaving out other currencies which might have brought it a bigger number of clients. As such, when the company changed their name from BitX to Luno, there was speculation that they were planning to introduce supporting services for other digital currencies in a bid to improve their market share. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen.
Update (November 9, 2017): Luno now also offers service for Ethereum, allowing their customers to buy, sell and store ETH.
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Trading Platforms
Luno supports a number of platforms which are all integrated to enable seamless cross-platform interaction. First, there is the web platform, accessed through the main web page and which requires no downloads whatsoever. For mobile users, the Luno mobile app is available at Google PlayStore and is tailored to make trading as safe, smooth and efficient as possible in mobile devices. WebSocket and API platforms are also supported and provide alternative ways to access the exchange system.
Transaction Charges and Commissions
Luno has some of the lowest rates in the industry. Basically, traders incur zero charges when sending or receiving BTC using their email addresses or phone numbers. When sending or receiving BTC through your Bitcoin address, a transaction fee of BTC 0.0002 applies. When it comes to purchases, the payable commission is dependent on whether you are a ‘taker’ or ‘giver.’ Takers are generally those traders who decrease the liquidity by buying Bitcoins. Givers, on the other hand are traders who increase the liquidity by offering Bitcoins for sale.
Transaction charges when funding your account depend on your geographic location and means of payment. Credit card payments attract a maximum 1.50% commission while bank transfers are free for most countries.
Withdrawals attract commissions of up to $50 again, depending on the amount to be withdrawn.
Luno Bitcoin Wallet
The Luno Bitcoin Wallet application for mobile devices makes it possible to buy bitcoin using a credit card. Currently in beta, this feature is only available in Canada, India and Europe. Other features include quickly buying and selling bitcoin, accessing your bitcoin account easily even when you’re away from your computer, and a lot more. You can even use the application to trade on the Luno Exchange. Instant buy/sell and the Luno Exchange are currently available in Indonesia, Nigeria, Singapore and South Africa, with more countries coming soon.
Regulation
As of now, Luno has no known licenses under any jurisdiction. This is probably because Bitcoins are not considered legal tender and governments are yet to develop regulatory frameworks. That said, the company complies with Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering standards to prevent money laundering and ensure that all transactions are secure.
Payment Method
You can fund your Luno account and/or buy BTC via bank transfer, international wire or credit card. Currencies supported include British Pound, Indonesian Rupiah, Malaysian Ringitt and the South African Rand.
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Customer support
Luno customer support can be reached by visiting the help page (luno.com/help) and filling out the inquiry form.
Local office addresses
1 Fore Street, London EC2Y 9DT
120 Robinson Road, Singapore 068913
De Waterkant, Cape Town 8001
Testimonials
We couldn’t find a lot of negative reviews about this bitcoin exchange. One reviewer from South Africa wrote that he has been “using Luno for a couple of months now and I must say I’m impressed. No delays in incoming/outgoing BTC or FIAT to ZAR. Verification checks were straight forward and no issues paying into Capitec.”
Unfortunately, the Bitcoin Wallet application received quite a few negative reviews on the Google Play website. For example, one reviewer said: “this luno is begining to look more and more like a scam.. first I can’t withdraw my money to my naira bank account now I can’t even send out BTC to another account.. what happened to BITX? Luno is a scam..”
Another reviewer writes: “This guy’s are scam there staff hacks into my account as soon as I received btc, my password, my pin n email where never tempered with, luno AR big thief’s it will never be well with you people.”
Now, Luno has taken time to reply to each of these comments, we’ll give them credit for that. But whether or not you should trust this company remains disputable. We dislike the fact that there’s no telephone number for customer support. And also in general we would not recommend doing business with a non-regulated company.
Luno Review Conclusion
We currently believe that while Luno may not be a scam, there are better Bitcoin exchanges out there.
If you traded with Luno, please leave a comment below detailing your experience with this bitcoin exchange. Once we have additional feedback about Luno, we will be able to reach a more definite conclusion regarding this company. For now, you’re welcome to visit our List of Bitcoin Exchanges for alternatives.
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I have withdrawn my money twice so I can’t be scammed for that.
hi , can ur team plz check #220271 and #220266 ? both of this payment made on wednesday but it still doesnt credit to my id. thanks
Hi Wong, sure, we’ll look into this.
hi luno customer servicer ,please check my ticket ( 220555 ) hopefully get respond from u soon , thanks.
Hi there, please note that when we are experiencing high ticket volumes, responses can take a little longer than usual, but we’ll follow up on this.
Luno,
I have deposited a fund of RM30,700 on last Friday , until now I haven’t received in my luno wallet. I’ve been created a lot of tickets to ask about it but NO RESPONSE at all after they retify the initial msg. I very nervous and worried on this matter. Kindly help find out as soon as possible. Thanks
My ticket #216487
Hi Jo, thanks for alerting us here. We’ll look into this for you.
I lost my Google authenticator app details, have been unable to get login keys for my Luno account… have requested 2FA be removed from my account on the 29th September via Luno website, ticket #208630, and still not response from Luno. Email reply stated 4 days max to resolve issue… its now been 16 days! PLEASE respond… I need access to my account.
Hi Dave, we’re really sorry to hear that you’ve been waiting so long. Thanks for sharing your ticket number, we’ll send this on to the team to sort out for you.
Ok so after using Luno for a while here is my honest review.
Yes Luno is not a scam. Yes they provide direct access to SA ppl to deposit and get funds “instantly” +30 min but thats not what the kicker is with Luno
Luno tends to sell BTC high to you. Eg if the current market price is R66000 per BTC (listed on their site even) when you instant buy the price spikes magically to R68000 and you actually pay way more for the BTC than you should have thats market indicative.
Secondly when you actually want to sell again and you want to convert it back to Rand then you only get R57000 per BTC.
This the write up as “Yea but you want to instantly get your money” so they sell your BTC at the lowest possible price someone is willing to pay for it.
Now there is no indicative “market” or Luno that is browsable like with any other exchange. There is also no indication of what the current buy vs sell orders are on Luno. There is also no listing of ask prices so you know what you can specify what the price should be or what you want to sell at.
Conclusion – Luno is hedging the BTC selling them at a premium and giving you min possible for them and hiding behind “Yea but you want to get your money instantly”. Their reasoning that if you are willing to wait for the BTC or Fiat then it will be market related BUT that process at time of transfer is so hidden and unclear that they dont want you to do that.
In my honest opinion they are being scaly in their exchange practices and manipulating the users due to some users not knowing better. Unfortunately we in SA dont have alternatives and you know what happens when someone has the monopoly over a certain process…. They take full advantage
That is rubbish. Whether you buy and or sell on the exchange, or use the quick link, the charge remains the same. Either you get it in receipt form from the exchange and but or sell at the exact market price, or on the quick option, they incorporate this charge automatically, hence instead of buying at 65 you buy at 66. The charge, or difference, remains the same. Quite simple actually.
I agree with you, as much as Luno is convenient for me to use, they sell their BTC at a very high price and buy at a lowest price they can get. The buying and selling price you see is just an estimate, it is only when you actually initiate the sale that you get to see the real price.
Hi there, Hopefully this breakdown of the fees will shed some light on things and provide some insight:
Sending BTC: A variable/dynamic fee, depends on network congestion, you will always see it before sending (same as most Bitcoin platforms).
Receiving BTC: A little complicated, but 0.0002 BTC per on-chain transaction. Note: if sending to someone’s email address/phone number, the transaction is off-chain (instant and free)
Storing BTC: No cost.
Buying/selling: The instant buy/sell is a guaranteed price, always shown to you before you agree to the transaction. It’s based on various factors, such as market liquidity, volatility. See this as the equivalent of buying forex at the airport: there’s one flat rate that you can agree to or not.
Trading Bitcoin: Not the same as buying and selling. If you use the Luno Exchange, you can trade Bitcoin as a market maker or a market taker (providing or taking liquidity — BTC or your local currency). Market maker orders will only execute if someone agrees to that price, but there are no fees involved in those transactions (but, of course, your transaction is not guaranteed). Market taker orders have a maximum of 1% fee (and it goes down from there, based on how much you trade).
What confuses me is Luno’s advertised BTC price (on its website) is roughly 10% higher than the global btc price.
This is a major concern to me !
Current btc/zar price online R101,000
Luna online price R111,000.
Please explain what im missing? The alternative is that luna is charging more than the global current price.
Hi Luno
Is it not time to perhaps review the taker fee structure?
It is apparent that this fees structure was arrived at when BTC was at a much lower pricing levels.
One will have to trade over R15m to get to the 0% taker fee structure presently.
Can we expect Luno to review this anytime soon?
Luno,
i had transfer deposit for RM2000 and RM3000 on 10 October 2017
1st deposit RM2,000 (Deposit Time : 9.26am) fund is not reflect in my luno wallet
2nd deposit RM3,000 (Deposit Time : 10.25cm) fund is reflect in my luno wallet
but why my first deposit is not reflect in my wallet ?
i already create ticket No : 213959 yesterday. until now no reply and no aswer from your side. I am still new in Luno ,first time facing this kind of problem
Please help me to settle my problem
Hi Chang, thanks for alerting us here. We’ll look into this for you and somebody will get in touch with you soon.
I’ve been trying to get someone to respond to me since 6th October regarding non reflective deposit after my bank transfer. Until now there’s no response. Money is not in for few days. How long does it take to get this rectified or a response? My ticket is #212202
Hey, Miracleshots, thanks for alerting us here and for sharing your ticket number. We’ll follow up with the team and somebody will contact you. Sorry for the delay and thank you for your patience.
Been trying to login to account for two weeks now and no luck. When requesting password via e-mail I receive the password e-mail two or three hours after request an by then my session has expired. No support or contact and looks like this is the only platform
for feedback? Please update?
Hi Ian, do you have a ticket number so that we can look into this for you and help you sort this out?
Hi Luno,
ticket #210960, the status show processing and the date of the withdrawal keep changing and delay. Can you help to update the status please? thanks
Hi Yew, please advise if you have been helped out? If not, we’ll look into this for you.