Luno Abandons Retail Focus for Institutional Infrastructure Play

Luno, a UK-headquartered cryptocurrency firm operating in four African countries, is pivoting from its retail crypto exchange roots to focus on selling digital asset infrastructure to institutions. The company's CEO and country manager for Nigeria, Ayotunde Alabi, said Luno wants to give banks, asset managers, fintechs, and large enterprises the tools to offer digital assets to their own customers.

The three-part institutional offering includes Crypto-as-a-Service, which would allow institutions to offer digital asset products without building their own trading, custody, and wallet infrastructure. The second part is a cross-border settlement network powered by GTXN's payments capabilities, while the third part is stablecoin issuance through BlockTower.

Luno plans to work on stablecoins backed by local currencies in different markets, including a possible naira-backed digital currency for Nigeria. The company has already launched ZARU, a South African rand-backed stablecoin, and is working with authorities and asset managers in Malaysia to develop a Malaysian ringgit-backed stablecoin.