Luno draws 10,000 South Africans to tokenised US stocks in first month
In early August, Luno, the UK-based crypto company operating in four African countries, became one of the first startups to offer South Africans tokenised US-listed stocks. One month later, over 10,000 users have bought tokenised shares through the platform, according to Marius Reitz, Luno’s general manager for Africa and Europe. The early surge suggests that South Africans are quick to adopt digital assets that ease longstanding barriers in the financial system, such as high fees, foreign-exchange hurdles, and settlement delays. Tokenisation, by contrast, offers lower costs, instant access, and round-the-clock trading. “We launched with 44 stocks,” said Reitz. “Since launch, we have added 15 more stocks, and we have also added exchange-traded funds, including the S&P 500, which is one of the favourites among our customers. Customer interest has grown week-on-week, and the feedback has been positive.” While the adoption indicates strong demand for digital assets, it raises questions over investor protection, taxation, and how far regulators can keep pace with digital asset innovation. What tokenisation means Tokenisation refers to creating digital representations of real-world assets (RWAs) such as equities, property, or vehicles. In Luno’s case, customers are buying blockchain-based tokens that reflect the value of US-listed shares rather than the equities themselves, leaving them without the investor rights associated with traditional securities. The advantages lie in convenience and liquidity. Tokenised Apple shares (xAPPL), for instance, can be traded at any hour and transferred between wallets without intermediaries. Locally, stock exchanges are trying to compete with the always-on level of trading that tokenised stocks provide. In August, Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) CEO, Mary Vilakazi, told Bloomberg that the bourse is considering a move to round-the-clock trading. Globally, tokenisation is gaining momentum. Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, and several asset managers are experimenting with digital versions of money market funds and other securities to reduce costs, accelerate settlement, and reach new investors. Tokenised assets can also be used in decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols as collateral for loans. Why Luno moved first Luno rolled out tokenised US equities in partnership with xStocks, the tokenisation product of Kraken, the global crypto company. This gave South Africans access to tokenised shares of more than 60 public US companies and ETFs, such as Apple, Tesla, and the S&P 500. The actual shares are bought and held by regulated brokers and banks, while the digital tokens that represent them are handled by cryptocurrency providers, said Reitz. “There’s a separation of duties when it comes to [asset custody],” he added. “Kraken has been around for more than ten years, they’re a trusted brand, and they enabled us to bring this product to market in a way that is safe, transparent, and easy to use.” When a customer buys Luno tokenised stocks, the money first goes through Kraken’s regulated payments arm, Payward Digital Solutions. The funds are then sent to Backed, which converts them into US dollars and passes them to its broker in the United States. The broker buys the actual shares, which are held in regulated custody. Backed then creates a digital version of those shares on the blockchain and delivers them to partners such as Kraken and Luno. The real shares are held separately from company assets in regulated custody accounts, so they remain safe if a partner were to fail. But if the digital tokens are stored on an exchange that goes bankrupt, customers may lose access until administrators resolve the claims. However, since tokenised assets are digital tokens, users can move them into self-custody wallets. Luno charges a flat 1% fee on trades, which, according to Reitz, was designed to be transparent, compared to the hidden conversion costs and spreads that South Africans face when buying tokenised stocks offshore. The product also positions Luno against rivals such as VALR. But in the wider $341 million tokenisation market in South Africa, it competes with players like ReFi Cape Town and Salient Yachts offering tokenised access to other physical assets. “Our competitor [South Africa’s VALR] only offers five stocks,” said Reitz. “So our offering is much deeper and puts much more choice in the hands of customers.” Regulatory grey zones The growth of tokenised assets is forcing regulators to confront difficult questions.. Unlike traditional equities, tokenised stocks do not come with the same level of investor protection stop-gaps that securities laws provide. In South Africa, securities are taxed under capital gains and dividend withholding rules. Crypto and digital assets are treated differently; they are taxed as capital gains for long-term holders or as income for active traders. Yet the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has struggled to enforce compliance for crypto disclosures. As of August 2025, only 17,000 out of six million crypto holders in South Africa have declared their crypto assets and filed the required taxes. Applying existing tax regimes to tokenised assets could be more complicated, since they sit in a grey area between securities and digital tokens. The cross-border, digital nature of tokenised stocks further complicates oversight of trading and money flows. While Luno stresses that it applies stringent know-your-customer and anti–money laundering checks to curb illicit flows on the blockchain, it remains unclear whether such systems are sufficient to address products that mimic traditional securities. “We are a regulated financial service provider in South Africa,” Reitz said. “Any product that we offer to our customers must be compliant with regulations, else we risk losing our licence. There must be a balance between investor protection, which is of paramount importance, and innovation.” Industry sceptics are unconvinced. The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), the trade association of publicly regulated stock, futures, and options exchanges, has warned that tokenising traditional assets undermines the ability of regulators to do their jobs and safeguard consumers. Still, the early traction of Luno’s product suggests tokenisation addresses real market gaps. For the sector to move from a niche experiment into mainstream finance, however, regulators will need to create clearer frameworks around investor protection and taxation at a pace that matches rising adoption. Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal
Read MoreLife in Nigeria runs on data, and it now costs ₦721 billion monthly
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs and financial institutions. A new edition drops every Monday. Whether it is football, prayer meetings, or Nollywood marathons, life in Nigeria now runs on data. That shift, plus a long-overdue tariff hike, has increased the country’s monthly data bill by 307.74% to ₦721.18 billion in July 2025 from ₦176.87 billion in July 2023. For Peter Adebiyi, a fashion entrepreneur, data has replaced cable. His 40-inch TV has never seen a satellite dish. “I use a smart TV, so I just stream whatever I want to watch,” he told TechCabal. That shift has driven an 83% surge in data consumption in just two years, boosting telecom revenues but leaving Nigerians to shoulder a far steeper monthly bill. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), one hour of video streaming consumes about 350 MB in standard definition and 1 GB in high definition. More streaming has meant more data usage. Monthly consumption has surged 83.88% to 1,131,255.90 terabytes (1.13 billion GB) in July 2025, up from 615,207.39 TB (615.21 million GB) in July 2023. The math By TechCabal’s calculations, Nigeria’s monthly internet spend rose to ₦721.18 billion in July 2025, based on an average cost of ₦637.5 per GB. Two years earlier, it stood at ₦176.87 billion when 1 GB averaged ₦287.5. This calculation was based on findings that revealed the average cost of 1GB in the country (using prices on the telcos’ websites). 1GB on Airtel was ₦350, ₦200 on MTN, ₦300 on Glo, and ₦300 on 9mobile, bringing the average cost of 1GB to ₦287.5 in 2023. In July 2025, 1GB on Airtel was ₦800, ₦500 on MTN, ₦750 on Glo (for 1.1GB), and ₦500 on 9mobile, bringing the average cost of 1GB to ₦637.5 in 2025. Average monthly data consumption per subscriber has risen to 8.15 GB in July 2025 (with 138.75m subscriptions), from 3.86 GB in July 2023 (with 159.54m internet subscriptions). Win for telcos MTN’s data revenue has risen by 379.63% since 2020 to ₦1.59 trillion in 2024, and stood at ₦1.23 trillion in the first half of 2025. Airtel’s data revenues are up 50.35% since 2020, hitting $654 million as of its fiscal year ended March 2024. Airtel’s average data usage per customer has jumped 232.14% since March 2021, hitting 9.3 GB in June 2025, while MTN’s rose by 53.49% since December 2023 to 13.2 GB per customer in June 2025. This surge has pushed Nigeria above the regional average for internet usage, with around 29% of the population using it 85% of Nigerians on the mobile internet use it to make or receive video calls, 75% use it to watch free-to-access online videos, and 54% use it to stream free music, according to GSMA. YouTube takes the screen YouTube has been one of the biggest winners. Aside from being the primary streaming platform of choice for many religious leaders, it has become a home for Nollywood movies. Watch time in Nigeria grew more than 55% year-on-year as of October 2024, with more than 2 million Nigerians now watching YouTube on connected TVs at home, the company disclosed at its TV/Film Day in Lagos in August. The number of Nigerian channels making eight figures in revenue grew by 100% in 2024. “As filmmakers, the screen no longer means only the cinema or television set,” said Nollywood producer Bolaji Ogunmola at YouTube’s event. “For many Nigerians, YouTube is the new TV.” Tarek Amin, director for YouTube in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, added, “The old gates are coming down. We are in the midst of an ever-evolving media landscape, and Nigerian creators are at the heart of it.” Drawbacks As the internet becomes more central to everyday life, costs are also biting harder. In January, telcos implemented a 50% tariff hike after a decade of price stability, citing rising operational costs. Adebiyi told TechCabal that his monthly data bill has tripled since January from about ₦10,000 to close to ₦30,000. Temiloluwa Toluwase, a digital marketer, now spends no less than ₦20,000 monthly from ₦10,000. Adeolu Ogunbanjo, president of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), said the hike has imposed untold hardship on many Nigerians. “Some people were forced to cut back on use.” Affordability and digital literacy remain the biggest barriers to broader adoption, GSMA noted. Internet subscriptions have already fallen by 3.41 million since January, dropping to 138.75 million by July 2025. Complaints about data depletion have also risen, with many subscribers accusing telcos of overbilling. According to the NCC, much of this usage is down to background app updates and heavy screen time. “It is important that telecom subscribers are equipped with the knowledge of how to monitor, control, and optimise the usage of their mobile data bundle allowance, be it daily, weekly, or monthly plans,” Freda Bruce-Bennett, director of Consumer Affairs Bureau at the NCC, said during a media briefing in August. Even with rising consumption, broadband penetration — availability of high-speed internet access — remains below 50%. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates that only 38% of Nigerians (and Africans) used the internet in 2024, far below the global average of 68%. About 20 million Nigerians remain completely unconnected, according to Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy. Lack of internet usage cuts many from digital technologies, which are crucial for economic growth, innovation, job creation, and inclusion, according to Andrew Dabalen, World Bank Chief Economist for Africa. To close some of these gaps, Nigeria is rolling out 90,000 km more of fibre optic cables at $2billion. Despite these challenges, internet usage is expected to grow in the country, with 32 million new unique mobile internet subscribers expected in the country between 2025 and 2030. Karl Toriola, the CEO of MTN Nigeria, captured this in a TV interview in January 2025: “We are positioning ourselves to capture the opportunities of growth for the next 10 years. The demand for
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Kola Aina on AI in Africa, local capital, and exits
Kola Aina needs no introduction. As the founding partner of Ventures Platform, a $46 million early-stage fund, he has been a central figure in African venture capital for the past decade. His firm has backed more than 90 startups across the continent, including Paystack (exited in 2020), PiggyVest, Omniretail, Lemfi, Raenest, Thrive Agric, and MaaD. The firm has also returned four of its six investment cohorts. Before he founded Ventures Platform, Aina had already been active as an investor, backing startups like Moniepoint early. He also founded Emerging Platforms, a tech firm that built custom edtech, enterprise, and security products. It’s probably why he told me he would be an edtech founder if he were not an investor. As a sector-agnostic firm, Ventures Platform (VP) invests in companies that tackle non-consumption, close infrastructure gaps, and expand prosperity in Africa by lowering access barriers and cutting the cost of delivering goods and services. The firm can invest up to $1 million across the pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages, and has portfolio companies in all of Africa’s four regions. Outside of investing, Aina helped champion the Nigeria Startup Act process with the Presidency and other ecosystem leaders like Iyin Aboyeji and Adia Sowho. He is also the pioneer advisory board chair of the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art (YSMA) and an art patron. For this week’s Ask an Investor, I spoke to Aina about how Africa’s tech ecosystem has matured in recent years, why his firm’s thesis has not changed, the rise of local investors on the continent, his firm’s exits, the future of his firm and exits, why he wished he invested in Moove, what early-stage founders should never do, his preference for former operators as colleagues and why his firm is investing in Francophone Africa. There’s also some advice for founders based on the art industry. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 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The past year has been good, really good. I think, generally speaking, with the slowdown in the markets from the highs of 2021, we’ve seen a scenario where only the most clear-conviction, serious founders and investors are active. You know, there’s a lot more high-quality activity going on. The cream is rising to the top. There’s less herd behaviour, less capital blindly chasing deals. Everyone is showing up correctly. It’s also been good in the sense that encouraging folks to focus on capital efficiency and solid unit economics is now the standard. It’s been a season of growing up across the ecosystem, which makes our job easier, generally. You said there’s less herd mentality. Can you explain a bit more about that? What I mean is, the ecosystem is going back to what it was pre-2020. Building a startup is a very hard endeavour. Investing is difficult. It’s not about vibes. There’s less fanfare now, and folks are more focused on doing this for the right reasons. That’s leading to higher quality on both the founder side and the investor side. Has anything changed about your thesis in the last 24 months? No. Our thesis hasn’t changed. It’s always been focused on funding market-creating innovations that can capture Africa’s opportunities, make a significant impact, and deliver returns. That thesis has stood the test of time and remains evergreen. If
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