Luno is one of the most popular crypto trading platforms in Africa, currently operating in Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. The platform connects buyers and sellers of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT) together.
Trading on Luno can brings traders more profits than expected if the trader explore all the trading features on the platform. However, it's important to note that these cryptos prices are determined by market supply and demand, not by Luno.
In this article, I will walk you through all the trading features on the Luno app that can generate more profits for traders. However, it's important to let you know that trading on Luno to make profits involves understanding the platform, applying trading strategies, and managing risks.
But before we dive into how to trade on Luno to make profit, let's first discuss the various methods of trading cryptocurrency on the Luno app. Here's is the step-by-step guide and everything you need to know about trading on Luno.
Methods of Trading Crypto on Luno
Before we talk about making profit on Luno through trading, it's wise to understand the methods of trading on the platform. There are five different ways to trade crypto on the Luno platform:
- Instant Buy and Sell of Crypto
- Exchange or Spot Crypto Trading
- Recurring Buying or Automated Investing
- Peer to Peer (P2P) or Over The Counter (OTC) Trading
- API or Bot Trading
These are the five different methods users can trade crypto on the Luno app. These methods exclusively generate profits for traders. Meanwhile, it's important to stick to the methods you understand better to minimize investment risk.
For beginners, the buy and sell option and the P2P option are best recommended. With that being said, let's dive into analyzing these methods one after the other.
1. Instant Buy and Sell
Luno allows instant buying and selling of digital assets like BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC and more on its mobile app. Beginners can explore this option to trade their crypto and make profit. This type of trading happens instantly at the current market price; no need to understand order book or chart.
2. Exchange/Spot Crypto Trading
Spot trading is a type of crypto trading that allows traders to place buy or sell orders simply by setting your own limit orders (setting your own price) or market orders—executing immediately at best available price. There are two types of orders on the Luno's spot trading:
- Limit Order: Buy/sell only at a specified price or better.
- Market Order: Buy/sell instantly at best price.
Market orders execute immediately; limit orders may not execute if the price isn't met. Market orders offer no price guarantee; limit orders ensure a specific price or better. Lastly, Market orders suit fast-moving markets or urgent trades; limit orders are ideal for price-sensitive strategies.
Meanwhile, it's important to note that this type of crypto trading on the Luno app is for intermediate to advanced traders because it requires some knowledge of trading and can take time for orders to be filled.
3. Recurring Buying/Automated Investing
This is another type of crypto trading strategies on the Luno app that allows traders to make profit. It's a best option for long-term investors using Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA). This trading method works by allowing traders to set up a recurring purchase—e.g., weekly or monthly—for a fixed amount of crypto.
Recurring buying or automated investing is good for passive investing, it helps reduce the impact of volatility over time, reduces emotional decision-making, and helps build long-term holdings gradually. However, it's important to note that this trading strategy does not allow for market timing.
4. P2P Trading
This is the second most popular crypto trading method on the Luno platform that allows traders to earn profits on their investments. It's a best option for traders in areas where direct trading or deposits are restricted—countries like Nigeria.
P2P, otherwise known as over-the-counter (OTC) trading, involves trading crypto directly with other Luno users, often using local payment methods. For example, Alice buys 0.1 BTC for ZAR 100,000 on Luno’s exchange. Bob gets ZAR 99,000 (after 1% fee). Luno offers security and fast ZAR transfers, but dedicated P2P platforms or maker orders could lower fees.
5. API or Bot Trading
The Luno API trading is not available to all regions. Additionally, this trading option is for developers and algorithmic traders. It's not advisable for beginners at all. It's an advanced bot trading system that uses Luno’s public API to automate trades, run trading bots, or integrate with third-party platforms.
It's fully automated, fast execution, and can backtest strategies. But, it requires technical knowledge and mistakes in code can be costly. Now that you've understood types of trading on the Luno app, and you've understood how each trading strategies work, let's dive into explaining how to make profit trading crypto on the Luno platform.
How to Make Profits Trading on Luno
First of all, it's important to note that trading on Luno to earn profits involves understanding the platform well enough to use it trading features, employing effective trading strategies, and managing risks. Once you have all these at the back of your mind, then you'll need to setup a Luno account if you're not a user yet.
Register an Account on Luno
Luno is a free crypto trading app for any users in eligible countries like South Africa and Nigeria. You can simply go to Google Play Store or Apple App Store to download the Luno mobile app. Once the app is downloaded, install it and sign-up on the platform using your email address and phone number.
An OTP code will be sent to your email address and phone number to confirm your identity. Once the account is successfully registered, then you'll need to sign in to the account and verify your identity under Profile > Settings > Verification to enable crypto transactions on the Luno app.
After you've successfully verified your identity and completed your KYC, then you'll need to add some crypto to your account. You can find your account with your local currency like Nigerian Naira (NGN) or South African Rand (ZAR) using your debit card, bank deposit or external deposit from other crypto platforms.
Once you're done with account creation, verification, KYC and funding, then you can proceed to trading your favorite crypto to make profit by choosing a trading strategy that'll favour you. I'm going to explain better in the sections below. Just keep reading this guide to get the full tips of making profit on Luno.
Choose Understandable Trading Strategies
There are more than 8 crypto trading strategies on Luno that can actually make investors and traders so much profits in a short and long term. However, while it's wise to explore two or more trading strategies at a time, it's also important to choose the trading strategies you understand very well to avoid risk of loosing so much on your investment.
Another important thing you need to understand is that Luno charges a small fee for trades, with a dynamic, tiered fee structure based on trading volume—which also means that lower fees will incur for higher volumes. With that being said, Luno’s beginner’s guide outlines several strategies to consider based on your risk tolerance, time commitment, and capital.
Here are trading strategies on the Luno platform that generate profits for traders and investors:
1. Crypto Staking
Recently, Luno launched "Staking" trading option in Nigeria, giving traders more ways to earn profits on their investments. Meanwhile, Crypto Staking—which is already available for South Africans for a very long time—involves locking up certain asset (like Ethereum, Cardano, or Solana) in a blockchain network to help validate transactions. In return, traders earn staking rewards, often paid in the same token back into their crypto wallets.
This actually works by allowing traders to earn interest for helping secure the blockchain network. It's like locking your money in a traditional bank savings account to earn interest. While the Luno Crypto Staking allows you to earn passive income, it also involves locking your funds for a set period which will definitely incur for a fee as penalty slashing. Another thing to note about Crypto Staking is that potential price drops can offset your rewards.
2. Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA)
Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA) is another trading strategies to make profits on the Luno app. It involves investing a fixed amount of assets at regular intervals e.g., weekly or monthly, regardless of the crypto's price. The purpose of the interval investments are to reduce the impact of market volatility by spreading out your purchases over time — rather than trying to time the market.
To make profit through this trading strategy on Luno, you'll need to explore a feature called "Repeat Buy" on the Luno app to set the Dollar-Cost Averaging. Once the DCA is setup, Luno will automatically execute the purchase at the current market price each week if you set up a recurring Buy of $100 BTC every Monday. You can also set the Luno's DCA to every month.
However, the main advantage of this trading strategy is that over time, you’ll buy more BTC when prices are low, and less when prices are high. This will turn out as a huge profit at the end of the investment. At the same time, you should understand that DCA doesn’t guarantee profits, especially if the market is in a prolonged downtrend.
3. HODLing
This is a common trading strategy among BTC investors that generate more profits in a long run. Crypto holding, otherwise known as “HODLing,” involves buying and holding digital assets for a long-term despite market fluctuations. For example, if you've bought the 1 BTC in 2009 for just a few cents then and held it until now that BTC is over $117,644.50USD at the time of writing, can you imagine how much you would made as profit?
This showcases the immense growth potential of long-term crypto holding. This strategy relies on patience and belief in the future value of the asset, turning early adopters into millionaires simply by resisting the urge to sell during volatile periods.
4. Day Trading
This is another crypto trading strategy on the Luno platform that generate profits. It involves buying of a certain crypto asset at a low price and resell it at a high price within a single day based on short-term price movements. It's profitable on little margins but if accumulated by the end of the day, it may yield a huge profit.
5. Swing Trading
Swing Trading is like the opposite side of the day trading on the Luno app. It is a short- to medium-term trading strategy where traders aim to capture price “swings” or trends in a market over a few days to weeks. Instead of trying to profit from tiny movements like in day trading, swing traders look for a defined price moves — entering at a low point in a trend and exiting when the price peaks (or vice versa).
Here's how the swing trading works in simple terms: identify a trend (maybe BTC is starting to rise up after a dip) >> enter a trade >> hold it for a few days or weeks while the price increases >> sell when you believe the upward move is nearly over—before the price drops again. That's exactly how swing trading works for profits on the Luno app.
6. Social Trading
Social Trading is another crypto trading strategy that generate profits for investors. It involves copying trades of successful traders on social platforms like X or Telegram. There are many traders that share their ideas and strategies they use in making profit from crypto trading. You can follow up their channels and groups to get trends.
7. Trading Bot
Luno offers a public API that allows traders to connect their custom-built bot to the platform. However, it's important to note that this tool is not for beginners; it's basically for developers and algorithmic traders. It involves combining basic programming skills with a solid understanding of trading strategies to make profits.
To get started, you'll need to choose a programming language like Python (widely used for trading bots), generate API keys from your Luno account for secure access, and use those keys to fetch live market data, place buy/sell orders, and manage your account. Your bot should be programmed to follow the rules you set. For example, you can programme your trading bot to buy when prices drop by a certain percentage and sell when they rise.
The Luno API trading bot can also use technical indicators like Moving Averages or RSI to determine entry and exit points. However, building a profitable bot requires more than just code — it requires risk management, backtesting, and constant monitoring. Before you use real money to trade, it's wise to test your bot on historical data or in a simulated environment to see how it performs under different market conditions.
While no bot is perfect, you can implement features like stop-loss orders, maximum trade limits, and portfolio tracking to minimize losses.
Final Note
Trading on Luno platform and making profits is very much possible especially in countries like South Africa and Nigeria where the crypto platform is adopted. However, it's important that every traders must understand that huge returns on trade incur high risks and low returns on trade incur low risk.
In addition to that, market volatility, platform fees impacting profits, tax implications, and asset security should also be put into key consideration for profitability. But my little advice for beginners is that start small to test strategies and familiarize yourself with Luno’s platform and avoid responding to unsolicited trading advice to prevent scams.
