Cryptocurrency exchange Luno is cutting 20% of its staff and plans to reorganize the business into three separate units.
CEO James Lanigan mentioned that South African staff are among those affected, but the company did not disclose how many employees are affected.
In South Africa, dismissals for operational requirements are governed by section 189 of the Labour Relations Act, which obliges employers to consult affected staff before retrenchments take effect.
Luno is headquartered in London and has operations across Africa and Asia.
“This was a very difficult decision, and we did not take it lightly,” Lanigan said.
“We have incredible people across this organisation, and saying goodbye to colleagues who have contributed so much is hard. But it is a decision we’ve had to make – for our customers, our remaining team and our long-term mission – which is to build a structure that is sustainable and focused.”
Why now?
Luno attributed the cuts to two things: a downturn in retail crypto trading, which it described as a phase of a cycle it has seen repeatedly since its founding in 2013, and its own investment in automation. The company said it “is continuing to integrate and develop tools that are rapidly changing the resource model required to run the business effectively”, and that a leaner structure was therefore “both necessary and appropriate”.
It is the second round of deep cuts at the company in three and a half years. In January 2023, at the depth of the last crypto winter, Luno axed 35% of its workforce — then about 960 people — affecting more than 330 staff. “2022 has been an incredibly tough year for the broader tech industry and in particular the crypto market,” the company said at the time.
Lanigan, previously chief operating officer, was elevated to CEO two months after those cuts, replacing co-founder Marcus Swanepoel, who moved to executive chairman. Digital Currency Group, an investor in Luno since its 2014 seed round, acquired the company outright in September 2020.
The first of the three units combines Luno’s existing retail exchange with a new “crypto as a service” offering. The retail business serves more than 16 million users across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, with trading, staking and payment products spanning crypto as well as tokenised equities, commodities and exchange-traded funds.
