Luno cuts 20% of global staff as CEO James Lanigan leads restructuring

Luno, the Digital Currency Group-owned crypto exchange with roots in South Africa, is laying off roughly 20% of its global workforce. The cuts, announced on July 28, come as CEO James Lanigan steers the company through a restructuring designed to trim costs and reposition the business around institutional clients rather than retail traders.

If this feels like deja vu, that’s because it is. Luno slashed 35% of its staff back in January 2023 during the broader crypto winter. Two and a half years later, the exchange is back at the chopping block, this time with a more surgical rationale: retail volumes aren’t recovering fast enough, and the money is in B2B.

From retail darling to institutional pivot

Luno built its reputation as one of the more accessible on-ramps for crypto buyers across Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia-Pacific. The current restructuring reflects that reality. Rather than waiting for retail enthusiasm to return, Lanigan is pushing the company toward business-to-business services and institutional product offerings. Stablecoin infrastructure appears to be a central piece of that strategy.

The company has said customers should not expect disruptions to services or operations as a result of the layoffs. The specific number of employees affected and which regions bear the brunt of the cuts remain unclear.

Lanigan’s path to the top, and the challenges waiting there

James Lanigan took over as CEO in March 2023, stepping up from his role as COO, a position he’d held since joining the company in 2018. He replaced co-founder Marcus Swanepoel, who moved into an executive chairman role.

In June 2026, Lanigan warned that proposed South African regulations on capital flows could effectively cut local companies off from what he projected to be a $33 trillion global stablecoin market. South Africa is Luno’s home turf and a key growth market.

DCG’s portfolio under pressure

Luno’s parent company, Digital Currency Group, has had its own turbulent few years. The conglomerate, which also owns Grayscale and mining operation Foundry, weathered the implosion of its lending subsidiary Genesis in 2023. DCG has been methodically stabilizing its portfolio companies since then, and Luno’s restructuring fits that pattern.

The exchange is essentially conceding that its retail business, at least in its current form, can’t sustain the company’s cost structure.

What this means for investors and the broader market

The stablecoin angle is worth watching closely. Lanigan’s $33 trillion market projection for global stablecoins reflects a clear direction of travel. Companies that can provide the rails for institutional stablecoin usage — custody, settlement, compliance — stand to capture meaningful revenue. Whether Luno can credibly compete in that space against better-capitalized rivals remains an open question.

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