TL;DR:
- The cryptocurrency platform Luno, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, confirmed a 20% reduction in its global staff in July 2026.
- The company maintains a user base of 16 million active users distributed mainly across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.
- Luno participates as a founding partner of ZARU, a stablecoin pegged to the South African rand, alongside firms such as Sanlam, Lesaka Technologies, and EasyEquities.
Luno cuts its global workforce by 20% as part of a corporate reorganization process announced in July 2026. The move, which was confirmed by James Lanigan, Chief Executive Officer of the firm, responds to the need to adjust the company’s operating structure in light of recent crypto market behavior.
The staff adjustment affects various geographic areas of the company, which is headquartered in London. The company’s management did not detail the exact number of employees laid off during this restructuring phase.
During the first months of 2026, prices of assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana experienced prolonged declines. This environment increased volatility in retail segment trading across multiple platforms.
According to statements by James Lanigan, the company executed continuous investments in automation and process improvements over the past year. According to Luno’s corporate report, these technological tools transformed the human resource requirements needed to manage the entity’s daily operations.
Strategic reorientation toward institutional clients and stablecoins
The internal restructuring will allow the firm to channel greater resources toward its business-to-business (B2B) services division. According to information disclosed by the company, the strategic objective encompasses strengthening technological infrastructure, updating regulatory compliance protocols, and optimizing products for retail users.
Currently, Luno has a base of 16 million users across its African and Asia-Pacific markets. Technical management has begun making its infrastructure available to institutional partners such as Discovery Bank, a financial institution based in Johannesburg.
This operational model enables banking entities, fintech companies, and telecommunications corporations to offer crypto products under their own brands. Under this scheme, Luno acts as a provider of liquidity, wallet custody, and regulatory compliance support.
Similarly, the platform seeks to consolidate the issuance of non-USD stablecoins in emerging markets. Luno is part of the founding group of the ZARU project, a digital asset backed by the South African rand that has the backing of local financial corporations such as Sanlam, Lesaka Technologies, and EasyEquities.
According to official project documentation, the infrastructure model tested with ZARU will be progressively replicated in other developing economies where the availability of local-currency stablecoins remains limited. Likewise, the firm’s institutional settlement service is aimed at reducing operational costs in cross-border transfers using blockchain technology.
The move executed by Luno coincides with a widespread trend across the digital asset industry. Various trading platforms are seeking to diversify their revenue streams toward institutional infrastructure and payments segments to counteract cycles of low activity in retail trading.
The company expects to announce new strategic partnerships for its B2B infrastructure offering over the coming quarters of the year.
