Luno chief executive Marcus Swanepoel told staff on January 25, 2023, that the exchange would cut 35 percent of its workforce1. SiliconANGLE reported that Luno employed about 960 people at the time, which put the cut at roughly 336 jobs across its offices in Singapore, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos and Sydney2. Swanepoel delivered the news in an internal message the company posted on its own blog on January 25.
Three leadership moves at Luno on the record since 2023
Every move CryptoLately has verified there, by the day it became public
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Jan. 25, 2023 | Layoffs. Layoffs at Luno became public |
| March 22, 2023 | Swanepoel left as CEO. Marcus Swanepoel left as Chief Executive Officer of Luno |
| March 22, 2023 | Lanigan became CEO. James Lanigan was named Chief Executive Officer of Luno |
12 rounds of layoffs on the record in 2023
Rounds of layoffs CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2023: 12
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 2 |
| 2020 | 0 |
| 2021 | 0 |
| 2022 | 11 |
| 2023 | 12 |
| 2024 | 6 |
| 2025 | 5 |
| 2026 | 18 |
The move
Swanepoel named the year behind the decision. “2022 has been an incredibly tough year for the broader tech industry and in particular the crypto market,” he wrote. “Luno unfortunately hasn't been immune to this turbulence, which has affected our overall growth and revenue numbers.”1 He pointed to a chain of specific shocks rather than a single cause. His post named “a series of shocks including Luna, Three Arrows and FTX that have had an overall compounding effect on our industry”.
Why cut a third of the staff at once, instead of a smaller round first? Swanepoel's own answer was timing. “While we anticipated a downturn and proactively planned ahead with a business and funding model that can be resilient to some of these factors, the sheer scale and speed of all of this happening, and all at the same time, has put significant strain on our original plan,” he wrote1. He told employees the cut would let the company "substantially decrease" its cost base “in order for us to be set up for success going forward”.
Before and after the cut
Luno sits inside Digital Currency Group, the crypto conglomerate that SiliconANGLE reported was "caught up in the collapse of FTX"2. Genesis, another DCG subsidiary, had recently filed for bankruptcy owing creditors at least $3.4 billion, and had announced its own 30 percent staff cut earlier in January 2023. SiliconANGLE listed Luno among a run of crypto employers cutting staff that winter: Silvergate Capital Corp. at 40 percent, Huobi at 20 percent, Kraken at 30 percent, Coinbase at 18 percent, Crypto.com at 30 percent and BitMEX at 30 percent. Swanepoel wrote that the layoffs would affect “some of the smartest, kindest and most hard-working people I've ever known” and said the company's priority was to “handle these departures with the empathy, generosity and gratitude that these Lunauts deserve”1. His post said the cut would leave customer funds and daily operations unaffected.
What came next
By July 2026, James Lanigan was Luno's chief executive, and he ran a second restructuring three and a half years after the first: BitKE reported on July 30, 2026, that Luno would cut about 20 percent of its global workforce as it shifted toward institutional clients3. “Luno has made material investments in automation and broader operational improvements over the last year and is continuing to integrate and develop tools that are rapidly changing the resource model required to run the business effectively,” Lanigan said. “These factors mean that a leaner and adapted structure is both necessary and appropriate.” BitKE reported that trading volume across South Africa's exchanges, where Luno competes most directly, had fallen from about 1,000 bitcoins a day in 2021 and 2022 to roughly 50 bitcoins a day by mid-2026.
Sources
- Marcus Swanepoel, "Luno adjusts size of team to navigate the current crypto winter," Luno, Jan. 25, 2023, https://web.archive.org/web/20230921111843/https://discover.luno.com/luno-adjusts-size-of-team-to-navigate-the-current-crypto-winter/
- Kyt Dotson, "Crypto exchange Luno to cut 35% of its workforce citing crypto market 'turbulence'," SiliconANGLE, Jan. 26, 2023, https://siliconangle.com/2023/01/26/crypto-exchange-luno-cut-35-workforce-citing-crypto-market-turbulence/
- BitKE, "REALITY CHECK | South African Crypto Exchange, Luno, to Cut 20% Workforce in Strategic Institutional Pivot," BitKE, Jul. 30, 2026, https://bitcoinke.io/2026/07/luno-strategic-restructure/