Christo de Wit, Luno country manager for South Africa.

Luno, a registered South African financial services provider and the country's largest cryptocurrency investing app, said today that it will use Fireblocks, an enterprise platform for developing blockchain apps and managing digital asset operations.

In April, Luno became the first dedicated crypto asset service provider in South Africa to be awarded its financial services provider licence.

At the time, Luno's country manager for South Africa, Christo de Wit, remarked on the license, saying that the business was pleased with the development as a home-grown pioneer with over ten years of expertise in the crypto sector.

With a licensing structure in place in South Africa, institutional investment in cryptocurrency is expected to grow.

Luno announced today that it is the first crypto asset service provider in South Africa to use the Fireblocks Network Link, an API standard that allows any cryptocurrency exchange to natively integrate into and add value to the Fireblocks Network, an enterprise-grade digital asset transfer platform for fast digital asset transactions and dynamic payment workflows.

As a result, the company said crypto exchanges may maintain control of the integration process, as well as how users interact with and experience the platform.

According to the company, the integration is an interface that, through Luno’s API, enables Luno’s institutional customers to utilise Luno’s services, such as send, receive, trade and settle tokens without having to log into their Luno account every time.

Luno added that it maintains full control and manages the permissions for customers to utilise its services.

In addition, it said the integration provides Luno’s customers with direct connectivity to more than 1,800 liquidity partners, trading venues, and counterparties once they have onboarded with Luno as business customers.

Aleks Andjelopolj, Luno’s general manager for retail and institutional product, said “By leveraging Fireblocks, Luno has taken a significant step towards greater institutional adoption. Customers can instantly access Luno’s services via Luno’s API and the Fireblocks Network Link integration.

“It is similar to the immediate settlement ability between customers of the same bank in traditional finance. The integration allows Luno to maintain control of how users experience its app and enables customers to leverage crypto rails to facilitate secure, quick, cost-effective and compliant transactions.”