Luno sees positive cryptocurrency market, mulls expansion in 2019

Luno, one of the largest cryptocurrency platforms focused on emerging markets said it is optimistic about the market in 2019 and it expects to double its talent pool while adding more markets to its portfolio.

Luno currently operates across 40 countries in Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa. In a blog post on its website, the company disclosed that it expanded its offices in Singapore, Cape Town, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Lagos as well as opened new ones in London and Johannesburg.

“We processed billions of dollars of transactions and added over a million new wallets,” the Luno team stated. “We’ve also continued to ship a number of product and support improvements and we will continue to invest very heavily in better service and product experience in 2019, in addition to some exciting new product features and country launches.”

The year 2018 was not a flattery one for most operators in the global cryptocurrency market. Prices of major cryptos like bitcoin and Ethereum dropped to historical low forcing many investors to sell their virtual currency assets.

Across the world, regulators in many countries sought to provide more clarity for cryptocurrency companies to operate either within existing frameworks, or with new licenses. Most forward- looking exchanges expect regulations to engender clarity, weed out most (if not all) of the bad actors, and form the foundations for large-scale institutional money to come into the crypto ecosystem.

A major headache for exchanges in the space has come from the media. The Luno team describes the media industry’s role in the market so far as “a double-edged sword”. On one hand it has helped push mainstream awareness initially but not of it painted the industry in beautiful lights. Headlines like ‘Bitcoin is Dead’, ‘Bitcoin used for Drugs’, and ‘Bitcoin Hacked’, they said, did not do the industry any favours. Some of the negativity was often exaggerated, not based on facts, or simply based on very little understanding of the sector.

“We’re already seeing this change rapidly as the market and the media continue to become more educated. We are also contributing by investing heavily into our Luno Learning Portal, which helps the public, the media, and other stakeholders educate themselves about the facts, opportunities, and risks in the cryptocurrency market,” Luno team said.

The company expects most of the focus in the market to move from ‘blockchain’ and ICO projects to the best use of decentralised cryptocurrencies.

“While we don’t believe we’ll see mass institutional adoption in 2019, we do believe that there will be some early movers like Fidelity, and BAKKT (Who, interestingly, also attracted investment from our own lead Series A Investor, Naspers) that will get the momentum started. We do, however, see smaller fintech and other tech companies entering the space via partnerships with existing cryptocurrency companies like Luno,” Luno said.