Luno Hits 50,000 xStocks Users as Tokenised Investing Gains Ground in South Africa

What to Know:

• Luno has reached 50,000 xStocks customers since launching the tokenised stocks product in August 2025, climbing from 10,000 users in its first month and 19,000 by October 2025.
• Customers collectively hold around R200 million in tokenised equity assets, with the average investor growing their holdings fourfold from an initial R1,500 to roughly R6,600
• Around 15% of xStocks investors are entirely new to Luno and came specifically for tokenised stocks.
• The most popular holdings by volume are Tesla (TSLAx), Gold ETFs (GLDx), Nvidia (NVDAx), MicroStrategy (MSTRx), and the S&P 500 ETF (SPYx).
• Users skew young and male (nearly half are 34 or under, 68% male), are concentrated in Gauteng, Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal, and 86% also hold crypto on the platform.

South Africa’s leading digital assets app, Luno, has reached 50,000 xStocks customers since launching the product in August 2025. 

The milestone is one of the clearest signs yet that tokenised investing is taking hold in Africa and may be attracting a new kind of investor who never came for crypto in the first place.

A Quick Word on What xStocks Actually Are

Before the numbers, a definition. 

xStocks are blockchain-based tokens that represent real U.S. shares and ETFs, backed 1:1 by the underlying asset held in regulated custody through partners like Kraken’s xStocks and Backed Finance. 

Buying a Tesla token doesn’t make you a Tesla shareholder in the traditional sense; you hold a digital claim tracking the stock’s value. The appeal is access: South Africans can buy fractions of U.S. equities directly in rand, without offshore accounts, currency conversion, or waiting for U.S. market hours.

However, the risks of tokenised exposure — custody dependence, liquidity, and the fact that it isn’t identical to direct share ownership — are worth keeping in mind.

A Fast Climb From October 2025 To Now

xStocks went from more than 10,000 users in its first month to 19,000 by October 2025, and has now crossed 50,000 less than a year after launch. 

Collectively, xStocks customers hold around R200 million in tokenised equity assets on Luno, and roughly 15% of these investors are entirely new to Luno, having joined specifically for tokenised stocks.

User behaviour also suggests this isn’t speculative churn. The average xStocks customer made a first investment of around R1,500 and has since built holdings to an average of R6,600 across almost three positions — a fourfold increase pointing to people returning to add to their portfolios rather than making one-off bets. That fits a portfolio-building pattern more than a trading one.

What xStocks South Africans Are Buying

The most popular holdings reveal clear preferences. By trading volume, the top five xStocks are Tesla (TSLAx), Gold ETFs (GLDx), Nvidia (NVDAx), MicroStrategy (MSTRx), and the S&P 500 ETF (SPYx). The mix is a blend of high-conviction tech companies, macro hedging through gold, and broad index exposure.

In short: bets on AI and technology, a hedge against uncertainty, and a diversified core. It looks a lot like how any thoughtful retail investor might build exposure to global markets.

Who are The South African Investors?

Almost half of xStocks investors are 34 or younger, and male customers make up 68% of users — younger and more male than South Africa’s broader investing public. 

Geographically, Gauteng dominates with 42% of customers, followed by the Western Cape at 25% and KwaZulu-Natal at 13%, broadly mirroring fintech and investment-app adoption patterns across the country.

These are investors who grew up alongside crypto and are comfortable managing both digital assets and traditional investments from a single phone app.

Where Crypto and Traditional Finance Meet

Around 86% of xStocks customers also hold crypto on Luno, signalling that investors are increasingly comfortable moving across the line between digital assets and traditional finance. For this group, buying Tesla, the S&P 500, or Bitcoin happens through the same interface, in the same session.

But the 15% who came only for tokenised stocks is arguably a bigger story. It suggests tokenisation is starting to reach people who aren’t interested in cryptocurrency at all. They just want a simpler route to global markets. This suggests tokenised equities could become the first blockchain-based financial product to achieve broader retail adoption than crypto itself.

There’s a useful parallel in mobile money. Across Africa, millions adopted services like M-Pesa for the utility they offered long before understanding or caring about the technology underneath. Tokenised stocks may be following the same path: people adopting a better way to invest, with the blockchain rails staying invisible.

The Bigger Picture: Tokenised Investing in More African Markets

Luno isn’t operating in isolation. Tokenisation of real-world assets has become one of the most discussed trends in global finance, with institutions like BlackRock, JPMorgan, Franklin Templeton, and HSBC exploring or launching tokenised products on the expectation that trillions in traditional assets could eventually move on-chain.

What makes South Africa interesting is that it’s a live retail test case rather than an institutional pilot. As one of the continent’s most mature digital asset markets, it’s a natural proving ground. 

If adoption holds at this pace, and that’s not guaranteed, since early growth curves rarely extend forever, xStocks could offer an early blueprint for how tokenised investing spreads to Nigeria and other African markets, where the same barriers of cost, foreign exchange, and access keep millions out of global capital markets.

The open question was once whether tokenised assets would gain traction at all. Luno’s figures suggest that, in at least one market, that question has already been answered.