This Company with 2m Wallets Knows Where Revolution Is Happening

Contrary to the popular belief, the real crypto revolution is happening in the emerging, not western markets, said Magdalena Golebiewska, head of Eastern Europe region at Luno, a Bitcoin company boasting two million global accounts.

People in the emerging markets, such as Africa and Asia are actually starting to use cryptocurrencies for transactions, she told in an interview with Cryptonews.com. According to her, it is estimated that in 2025 up to 50% of global population will live in the emerging markets.

“These people are the future and we need to give them an opportunity to use the financial system. Most of the people in the emerging markets are underbanked,” Golebiewska stressed, adding that companies will find a huge base of customers there.

Since its launch in 2013, Luno has crossed a total turnover of EUR 3 billion and became profitable in February last year, said Golebiewska, who’s also a speaker at Switch! conference, a modern technology and entrepreneurship event in the Baltic region.

Currently, their highest priority is global expansion.

Luno was established under the name BitX, with a focus on the South African market. They later expanded towards other emerging markets, since they found that people are more open towards crypto in those countries.

Once they noticed that their target group changed, shifting towards the general population instead of just tech savvy users, they renamed their brand to Luno. They offer both an exchange and a wallet for Bitcoin or Ethereum. At this stage, they have no plans to add other cryptocurrencies – but they will reconsider if they find that people want more, Golebiewska said.

According to her, the company currently don’t intend to raise more funds and should they need to do it, they will probably go the route of existing investors instead of crowdfunding. Among investors in Luno are such companies as Naspers, Digital Currency Group, Balderton Capital, RMI, and Venturra.

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Listen to the whole interview and hear what Magdalena has to say about the growth of Luno and trends in their markets, how they secure holdings of their clients, how fees will change in the near future, and main challenges for their business.