For people who have been complaining about the high fees charged by Luno, VALR may just be that light at the end of the tunnel.
A new cryptocurrency exchange based in rand plans on challenging South Africa’s largest imperative, Luno. The platform is headed by First National Bank’s former CEO, Michael Jordaan. It has four founders and has also enticed funding from one of the major exchanges in the world, Bittrex.
VALR was formed by a splinter group from Rand Merchant Bank. It raised R20m in July 2018. VALR’s chief product officer said that Bittrex had a similar partnership in South Africa and Europe, when he approached them they were very keen because South Africa was one of the emerging markets they were keen to expand into.
Luno is currently mastering South Africa’s cryptocurrency market. Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that are traded directly between buyers and sellers without a central bank or mediators. VALR comes with the hope of winning cryptocurrency traders’ hearts by bearing a cheaper price tag compared to Luno.
South Africans have been complaining about the high fees charged by Luno on everyday transactions. “There is no way to value cryptocurrencies apart from the temperamental forces of supply and demand, so it’s important to keep this in mind for anyone thinking about buying into Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies,” said VALR CEO Farzam Ehsani.
VALR is scheduled to launch on June 11 and they are certain their customers security will be managed properly. Security has been a concern in the past as because of recurring breaches. On a more recent matter, hackers stole Bitcoins worth $40m from Taiwanese crypto exchange, Binance.
