VALR vs Luno: fees, FSCA licensing, ZAR deposits and KYC compared

Direct answer

Both VALR (Pty) Ltd (FSP 53308) and Luno (Pty) Ltd (FSP 53314) are South African companies on the FSCA’s December 2025 list of licensed crypto asset service providers, both take free EFT deposits and pay rand back to your own bank account, and both require identity verification before you can trade. The differences are in the fee schedules and the rails. VALR is cheaper on the order book for bitcoin and other rand pairs (0.18 % maker / 0.35 % taker against Luno’s 0.40 % / 0.60 %), cheaper on its one-tap buy (1.6 % against 2 %), and gives individuals 30 free normal withdrawals a month. Luno is cheaper for stablecoins (0.20 % taker on USDT/ZAR and USDC/ZAR with a maker rebate), offers instant deposit rails that VALR lacks, and pays R20.00 same-day withdrawals to most banks against VALR’s R30. Pick VALR if you mainly trade BTC/ZAR on the order book or want futures; pick Luno if you buy stablecoins, bank with Capitec or Absa, or want a paid instant deposit.

We hold no affiliate agreement with either platform. Every figure was read on the platforms’ official pages on 6 September 2026.

Who each platform suits

VALR suits order-book traders on rand pairs, anyone who moves rand in and out frequently (30 free withdrawals a month), crypto-to-crypto traders (0.08 % / 0.10 %), and users who want perpetual futures, spot margin or an OTC desk under one login. It has no instant EFT rail, so it suits people who can plan deposits a day ahead.

Luno suits stablecoin buyers, Capitec and Absa customers (who cannot EFT to Luno and must use Capitec Pay at R9.00 or Absa Pay at 1.4 %), anyone who wants a deposit to reflect in minutes and is willing to pay 1.25–2.5 % for it, and users who want staking or tokenised stocks alongside spot. It publishes no futures or margin product for South Africa.

Fees compared

Exchange trading

At the entry tier VALR charges 0.18 % maker / 0.35 % taker on fiat-quoted pairs (BTC/ZAR, USDT/ZAR), 0.08 % / 0.10 % on crypto-quoted pairs and 0.05 % / 0.10 % on stable-to-stable pairs, across nine tiers measured in USDT. Luno charges 0.40 % / 0.60 % on crypto/ZAR pairs, 0.20 % taker with a −0.01 % maker rebate on USDT/ZAR and USDC/ZAR, and 0.08 % / 0.10 % on crypto/crypto pairs, across 13 tiers measured in rand.

Worked examples on a R5,000 taker order at Tier 1 (assumptions, not quotes):

• BTC/ZAR: VALR 0.35 % = R17.50; Luno 0.60 % = R30.00.
• USDT/ZAR: VALR 0.35 % = R17.50; Luno 0.20 % = R10.00.
• BTC/USDT (crypto-quoted): VALR 0.10 % = R5.00; Luno 0.10 % = R5.00.

One-tap buying

VALR’s Simple Buy/Sell/Swap and Auto-Buy cost 1.6 %; Luno’s buy and sell from the Portfolio screen cost 2 %. On R5,000 that is R80.00 against R100.00, and either is several times the order-book fee.

Deposits

EFT is free at both, with no minimum at VALR (funds may take up to 48 hours to clear) and no limit at Luno (up to two business days from banks other than Standard Bank). VALR’s only other rail is a South African card at 3.9 %. Luno adds instant deposit via Stitch at 1.4 % (up to R100,000), Absa Pay 1.4 %, Capitec Pay 1.25 % under R1,000 or R9.00 above, and Apple Pay 2.5 % (R50–R30,000). Luno’s fee page also lists a 3.9 % card purchase as currently unavailable.

Withdrawals

VALR: 30 free normal withdrawals per calendar month for individual clients, then R8.50 each; fast (RTC) withdrawal R30. Luno: normal withdrawal free (up to two business days); express same-day R20.00 to RTC-participant banks or R80.00 to others. Both pay only to a South African bank account in your own name.

Round trip on R10,000 (assumptions, not quotes)

EFT in, one taker buy and one taker sell on BTC/ZAR, one normal withdrawal, ignoring spread and price movement: VALR about R70 (R35 + R35), Luno about R120 (R60 + R60). Same trip on USDT/ZAR: VALR R70, Luno R40. Same trip through the one-tap screens: VALR R320, Luno R400. The fee calculator lets you change every input.

Deposits and withdrawals compared

For someone with an FNB, Standard Bank, Nedbank, Investec or TymeBank account who can wait, the two are equal: free in, free out. For someone who needs the money on the exchange today, only Luno offers a bank-linked instant rail (1.4 %, or R9.00 via Capitec Pay); VALR’s card route costs 3.9 %. For frequent small withdrawals VALR’s 30-a-month allowance is the better deal; for a single urgent withdrawal Luno’s R20.00 express beats VALR’s R30 fast withdrawal by R10.

KYC compared

VALR has three levels: semi-verified (name, e-mail, mobile) cannot deposit or trade; fully-verified needs a government-issued ID plus tax information and allows crypto withdrawals of 0.2 BTC a day; fully-verified PLUS adds authenticator-app 2FA and raises that to 100 BTC. Luno grades rand limits: Level 1 allows R15,000 of lifetime deposits and withdrawals, Level 2 R50,000 a month, and full verification removes the limits; Luno accepts an SA ID card (front and back), ID book, driver’s licence or valid passport, may ask for a colour selfie, and wants proof of address dated within three months. Luno’s crypto send limits are USD 2,400, USD 12,000 or USD 120,000 per 24 hours by level. VALR allows no deposit or trade before ID verification, whereas Luno’s Level 1 permits up to R15,000 in total.

Products compared

VALR’s fee schedule covers spot, perpetual futures (0.03 % / 0.07 % at Tier 1, provided by group entity VALR DAM under a licence VALR states as FSP 54897), spot margin, staking, earn and OTC. Luno covers spot, staking (service fee 20–40 % of rewards), an OTC desk from about USD 50,000, tokenised stocks and bundles, and publishes no futures or margin product for South Africa.

Licensing compared

Both appear in Section A of the FSCA’s December 2025 list: VALR (PTY) LTD at entry 270 (FSP 53308, Category I & II) and LUNO (PTY) LTD at entry 166 (FSP 53314, Category I & II). Luno additionally publishes NCR credit-provider and FIC registrations; VALR publishes the futures entity’s FSP number, which we did not find on the list. Both are verified only to the December 2025 list.

Limitations of this comparison

Spread is not published by either platform and can outweigh the fee difference on a small trade. Fee tiers fall with volume, and both schedules were updated in the first week of September 2026, so the numbers are a dated snapshot. Neither platform’s instant-buy price is stated to be spread-free. Bank charges on your side are unknown to us. This is a comparison of published data, not of account experience: we have not opened an account at either platform.

Next steps

Read the full profiles for VALR and Luno, the fee walkthroughs in VALR fees explained and Luno fees explained, and run your own numbers in the fee calculator.