Luno in South Africa: availability, FSCA status, ZAR fees and KYC

Luno is open to South African residents, contracts with a South African company (Luno (Pty) Ltd, registration 2013/075107/07) and appears on the FSCA’s December 2025 list of licensed crypto asset service providers as FSP 53314, Category I & II. Rand comes in free by bank transfer with no limit, goes back out free by normal withdrawal to a South African bank account in your own name, and same-day express withdrawals cost R20.00 to most banks. On the Luno Exchange a new account pays 0.40 % maker / 0.60 % taker on crypto/ZAR pairs such as BTC/ZAR and only 0.20 % taker on USDT/ZAR and USDC/ZAR. The costs to watch are the 2 % instant buy and sell from the Portfolio screen and the 1.25–2.5 % instant deposit rails.

Who Luno suits

Luno fits a South African who wants a licensed local entity, a free rand rail in both directions and a simple app, and who is prepared to use the Exchange screen rather than the one-tap buy button to keep fees down. It suits stablecoin buyers particularly well: 0.20 % taker on USDT/ZAR, with a 0.01 % rebate for makers, is the lowest rand-pair rate we verified anywhere. Capitec and Absa customers can only fund Luno through Capitec Pay or Absa Pay, which cost R9.00 (over R1,000) and 1.4 % respectively rather than the free EFT.

It is a weaker fit for active bitcoin traders, because 0.60 % taker on BTC/ZAR is higher than VALR’s 0.35 %, for anyone who wants derivatives (Luno publishes no futures or margin product for South Africa), and for people who will only ever press the instant buy button at 2 %.

What we checked and where

Every fact here comes from Luno’s own help centre and legal pages (fees article updated 3 September 2026; South African Terms of Use last updated 14 May 2026) and from the FSCA’s December 2025 list, all read on 6 September 2026. We did not open an account. Fields Luno does not publish are marked unknown.

Availability and the entity you contract with

Luno’s supported-countries page lists South Africa (alongside Kenya and Nigeria in Africa, and Indonesia and Malaysia in South East Asia), and its South African Terms of Use state that they are a binding agreement between you and Luno (Pty) Ltd, a company incorporated under the laws of South Africa. The terms define local currency for South Africa as rand and require that a ZAR wallet is funded only in rand; the bank-transfer article adds that deposits must come from a bank account registered in South Africa and that international deposits are reversed. Luno’s about page says the group was founded in 2013 and is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group; the registered address of Luno (Pty) Ltd is in Cape Town, and the group’s headquarters city is not stated on any official page we read.

FSCA licence status

Entry 166 of the FSCA’s December 2025 list shows LUNO (PTY) LTD with FSP number 53314, Category I & II, authorised for advice, intermediary services and investment management. Luno’s own licences page (last updated 21 March 2025) states the same FSP number and adds that Luno (Pty) Ltd is a registered credit provider (NCRCP22123), a registered third-party payment provider and a Financial Intelligence Centre registrant (AI/130605/00024), and that it acts as a juristic representative of Black Onyx CurrencyHub (Pty) Ltd (FSP 50850) in respect of derivatives. We found no derivatives product page for South African customers, so what that arrangement offers retail users is unknown.

How the fee tiers work in practice

Luno prices Exchange trades by 30-day volume in rand across 13 tiers and three pair classes. At Tier 1 (R0–R20,000):

• USDT/ZAR and USDC/ZAR: 0.20 % taker; makers receive a 0.01 % rebate.
• Other crypto/ZAR pairs (BTC/ZAR, ETH/ZAR and so on): 0.60 % taker / 0.40 % maker.
• Crypto/crypto pairs: 0.10 % taker / 0.08 % maker.

Tier 2 (R20,000–R200,000) trims crypto/ZAR to 0.50 % / 0.30 %; the crypto/ZAR maker rate reaches 0 % at Tier 7 and the top tier (over R300,000,000) charges 0.05 % taker on both ZAR classes. Buying or selling from the Portfolio screen costs 2 % each way; ZAR Supercoin is 0 % to buy and 3 % to sell. Staking keeps 20–40 % of rewards depending on the coin (20 % on ADA, 30 % on ETH, 35 % on DOT, NEAR, SOL and AVAX, 40 % on ATOM). Tokenised stocks cost 1 % per trade and bundles 1 % to buy or sell plus 2 % a year in rebalancing.

Cost assumptions: R10,000 in, R10,000 out

Published rates only; spread, price movement and bank charges are ignored.

• Deposit R10,000 by EFT: R0.
• Buy BTC/ZAR as a taker: 0.60 % = R60; as a maker: 0.40 % = R40; via the Portfolio screen: 2 % = R200.
• Buy USDT/ZAR as a taker instead: 0.20 % = R20.
• Sell later on the same basis: another R60, R40 or R200 (or R20 on USDT/ZAR).
• Withdraw by normal withdrawal: R0; express: R20.00 to an RTC bank or R80.00 otherwise.

A BTC/ZAR round trip therefore costs about R80 on the maker path, R120 on the taker path and R400 through the Portfolio screen; funding through the 1.4 % instant deposit adds R140.

Depositing rand

Bank transfer (EFT) to Luno’s Standard Bank account with your unique reference is free and unlimited; Luno charges nothing, though your bank may. Instant deposit through Stitch (FNB, Investec, Nedbank, Standard Bank, TymeBank) costs 1.4 % up to R100,000 per deposit and reflects within minutes; Absa Pay costs 1.4 %; Capitec Pay costs 1.25 % under R1,000 or a flat R9.00 above R1,000; Apple Pay costs 2.5 % for R50–R30,000. Cash deposits are prohibited by the terms. Two Luno articles give different Capitec Pay limits (R100,000 and R150,000); we use the fee page’s R100,000.

Withdrawing rand to your bank

Rand goes only to a linked South African bank account in your own name. A normal withdrawal is free and reflects up to two business days after Luno processes it, sooner for Standard Bank customers. An express withdrawal arrives the same day for R20.00 if your bank is a real-time-clearing participant (the list includes Absa, Capitec, Discovery, FNB, Investec, Nedbank, Standard Bank and TymeBank) or R80.00 if it is not. Luno’s general withdrawal article says a fee is charged only if your bank charges Luno, while the South African fee page lists normal withdrawals as free; the confirmation screen shows the exact figure.

Crypto deposits and withdrawals

Receiving crypto is free (BTC receipts below 0.00000546 BTC incur a dust fee). Sending crypto carries a dynamic fee that combines the blockchain fee with Luno’s operational cost, shown before you confirm; XRP is fixed at 0.03 %. Send limits by verification level are USD 2,400 per 24 hours (Level 1), USD 12,000 (Level 2) and USD 120,000 (Level 3), with 30-day caps of USD 12,400, USD 60,000 and USD 600,000.

KYC walkthrough: the three verification levels

Luno accepts a South African national ID card (front and back), ID book, driver’s licence or valid passport; temporary IDs are not accepted. A colour selfie may be requested, and proof of residential address must be dated within three months. Level 1 allows R15,000 of deposits and R15,000 of withdrawals over the life of the account; Level 2 allows R50,000 of deposits and R50,000 of withdrawals per month; a fully verified account has no rand limits. Luno says verification is usually automatic within minutes and can take a day or two if reviewed manually. Foreign residents need a passport, selfie, residence permit or visa and bank proof of address.

Product notes

Spot trading on the Exchange plus instant buy and sell, staking on selected coins (ADA, DOT, ETH, NEAR, SOL, ATOM, AVAX), an OTC desk with a standard minimum of USD 50,000 equivalent, tokenised stocks and bundles. No futures or margin product page for South Africa was found; the derivatives arrangement through FSP 50850 is unexplained on the pages we read.

Limitations and risks

Fees change without notice; the fee page was updated three days before we read it. Percentage rails and the 2 % instant screen cost several times the Exchange rate on small amounts. Crypto asset prices are volatile and an FSCA licence does not insure a balance. The general risk warning on this page applies.

What we could not verify

• The Luno group’s headquarters city.
• Which Capitec Pay limit currently applies (R100,000 or R150,000).
• Whether any derivatives product is available to South African retail customers.
• Whether the instant buy and sell quote includes a spread beyond the published 2 %.

Next steps

See how Luno’s numbers line up against VALR’s in VALR vs Luno, read every fee line in Luno fees explained, run your own amounts through the fee calculator, and follow the withdrawal guide when it is time to cash out.