Crypto exchange Luno is cutting approximately 20% of its global workforce, joining a widening round of restructurings that hit at least 12 crypto and crypto-adjacent companies in July. The Digital Currency Group-owned exchange, founded in South Africa, serves roughly 16 million users across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.
CEO James Lanigan attributed the cuts to efficiency gains rather than distress, saying the company had “invested in automation and broader operational improvements that changed the resources needed to run the business.” The restructuring is aimed at shifting resources toward institutional clients, financial infrastructure, and business-to-business services while trimming costs to match current market conditions.
“We've invested in automation and broader operational improvements that changed the resources needed to run the business.”
Not Luno's First Round of Cuts
This is not the exchange's first major workforce reduction. Luno cut 35% of its staff, affecting nearly 330 employees, back in January 2023 during a broader industry downturn. The latest cut is smaller in percentage terms but arrives in a very different climate — one where companies are citing operational efficiency and automation rather than market collapse as the primary driver.
A Wider Wave of July Layoffs
Luno's announcement lands alongside cuts at several other firms. Exodus cut 25% of its staff, a move it expects will generate $10 million to $13 million in annual savings, while Gnosis reduced its workforce following a review of its consumer-facing Gnosis App. Market conditions were the most commonly cited reason across the wave of announcements, according to data from CryptoJobsList.
CryptoJobsList recorded 894 disclosed jobs affected in July alone, part of a broader 2026 total of more than 7,254 disclosed job cuts across 47 companies year-to-date. Multiple firms in the current round specifically pointed to AI, automation, and operational efficiency as justification for the reductions — a shift in framing from prior crypto downturns, when layoffs were more commonly tied directly to falling token prices and shrinking trading volumes.
Whether that framing reflects a genuinely healthier industry restructuring around new technology, or simply a more palatable way to describe familiar cost-cutting, the practical effect for the roughly 7,000-plus workers affected so far this year is the same.
