South Africa’s largest and oldest crypto asset service provider, Luno, has secured a licence from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority to operate as a financial services provider. Photo: Supplied
South Africa’s largest and oldest crypto asset service provider, Luno, has secured a licence from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) to operate as a financial services provider.
Luno is the first dedicated crypto asset service provider in South Africa to be awarded its financial services provider licence following the FSCA’s declaration of crypto assets as a financial product in terms of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act (FAIS).
In 2022, the FSCA declared crypto assets to be financial products and said they needed to be regulated in order to protect financial customers from risks and prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.
Roughly 60 crypto platforms are set to be licensed in South Africa. The FSCA said last month more than 300 crypto-asset providers had sought approval.
Christo de Wit, Luno’s country manager for South Africa, said in a statement earlier today: “As a home-grown trailblazer with more than ten years of experience in the crypto market, Luno is thrilled to be the first licensed crypto asset service provider in the country.
“This is a positive step for both the cryptocurrency industry and South Africans. Compliance, safety and security for our customers have driven our growth since the beginning and will continue to be priorities as we expand our offering to introduce more features and products for financial institutions.”
Welcoming the move, Luno said on its website that it had set out in 2013 “to empower billions of people across the world by upgrading them to a more open, efficient and inclusive financial system. To do that, we built a platform that makes cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum easily accessible to everyone – whoever and wherever you are”.
According to Yahoo finance, Bitcoin climbed back above the $71 000 (R1.4 million) mark earlier today, despite stock markets closing lower after a disappointing US inflation report.
The world's largest digital asset by market capitalisation increased by more than 2% in the past 24 hours, reaching a daily high of more than $71 200. The uptick follows a downturn in early trading yesterday that saw bitcoin reach a low of around $68 000.
Luno asks on its website: “Why Cryptocurrency?”
“The way people use and think about money is constantly evolving.
“The existing financial system was built for a non-digital age, ignoring the needs of the modern individual and with many unnecessary inefficiencies and gatekeepers. The world now has access to new technologies like decentralised cryptocurrencies that is quickly making these old systems and ways of thinking redundant. Like communication evolving from landlines to mobile phones, or post to email, money is now finally catching up with other information revolutions.”
It said decentralised cryptocurrencies were enabling them to re-imagine the financial system to upgrade the world to something better.
BUSINESS REPORT