Monday, 19 October 2020: Customers of the globally-recognized crypto platform, Luno, can now earn up to 4% interest per annum on their Bitcoin holdings through the Luno savings wallet launched today. The offering allows Luno customers with Bitcoin to earn passive income on their balance with little effort and no penalties.
“In a time of economic uncertainty, the Bitcoin savings wallet is an alternative for anyone looking to get meaningful savings on their money. Almost 95% of our customers have said they want to earn interest on their Bitcoin, and because of the nature of Bitcoin, we are able to offer a much higher interest rate than traditional savings accounts in certain regions (Europe for example) and comparable to flexible interest offerings in emerging markets such as South Africa.
As traditional investments have shown vulnerability at a time of crisis during 2020, there has never been a better time to benefit from a currency that does not rely on a healthy economy to determine its value,” says Marcus Swanepoel, CEO, and co-founder of Luno.
The interest rate offered by South Africa’s large banks ranges between 1% and 4% per annum on flexible savings accounts. Global research conducted by Luno found that more than a third of people (54%) are currently earning zero interest on their cash savings. With inflation above zero, this means that their money will have less purchasing power each year.
Luno’s research also found that 40% of those surveyed lacked confidence in their local currency, while 95% of active South African Luno customers indicated that they would use a savings wallet that offered interest on their Bitcoin balance.
A high percentage of South Africans who own cryptocurrency do so for speculative investment purposes, with the majority holding their Bitcoin for the long term (or HODLing in crypto-speak).
“Less than 5% of Luno’s South African customers plan to sell their Bitcoin in the next six months, in fact most plan to buy more, so the savings wallet means they can earn interest by simply doing what they were planning to with their Bitcoin,” explains Marius Reitz, Luno’s GM for Africa.
“More than 55% of South African customers indicated that they do not have investments other than crypto. It’s important to diversify investments given how new the Bitcoin industry is. Those who hold Bitcoin will no doubt find the interest-earning potential attractive,” he explains.
While the price of Bitcoin is notoriously volatile, its long-term price trajectory has risen steadily. In a strong bullish signal, Bitcoin just set a new record of over 84 days closing above $10,000. Bitcoin is currently trading around $11,467 / R196,565 on Luno.
Bitcoin has outperformed all major stock market indices (and gold) in 2020 and Luno’s research shows that at least half of people globally would like a single global currency.
Source: Arcane research for Luno
Key features of the Luno Bitcoin savings wallet
Up to 4% interest per annum on your Bitcoin balance
There are no fixed terms, no admin fees, and your funds can be moved into your normal wallet whenever you need them.
Interest is paid on the first of the month
You can choose to leave your earnings in your savings wallet to compound and grow exponentially, or you can withdraw straight away.
Saving 1 BTC at an interest rate of 4% per annum would generate the customer 0.04 BTC per annum (around R8,000 / $40.00 USD at the time of writing).
