Luno to provide safe platform for cryptocurrency investment

By Siti Noor Afera Abu

KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 (Bernama) -- Luno Malaysia Sdn Bhd, a cryptocurrency exchange operator in Malaysia, aims to provide a secure platform for the local users to safeguard their cryptocurrency and ringgit assets.

Luno Southeast Asia general manager David Low said the company needed to make sure that the customers’ funds are stored in a trust account, thereby allowing a third-party oversight in order to secure the transactions.

“What we have to do, (for example) for the ringgit, we need to make sure that the customers’ funds are stored in the trust account, not Luno personal account, and always ensure the third party has oversight over the funds to prevent us from misappropriating them in an illegal manner,” he told Bernama recently.

Low further explained that the regulation by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) would bring clarity and protection to consumers and ensure that all cryptocurrency businesses have adequate standards in place to protect investors and their funds.

“With regulation coming into picture, I think Malaysians can first look forward to using legitimate cryptocurrency exchanges to access and buy bitcoin and ethereum,” he said.

The SC has stated that its proactive regulation of cryptocurrency and underlying blockchain technologies would bring innovation in both old and new industries.

Luno Malaysia is one of three digital asset exchanges that have received conditional approval from the SC to trade in cryptocurrency. 

The other two are Sinegy Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd and Singapore-based Tokenize Technology (M) Sdn Bhd.

The three companies are given up to nine months to fully comply with all regulatory requirements prior to receiving a full licence.

Low said as Luno had yet to receive 100 per cent approval from the SC, the investors would have to be patient before starting to invest in cryptocurrency.

“The SC is introducing the regulatory framework to ensure whoever wants to create their own cryptocurrency needs approval from them.

“The good news about that is that once you get the SC’s approval, you can actually go out to the market, (for example) create (your) own cryptocurrency to raise funds from the public in which they have to invest in your business,” he added.

Currently, Luno allows the trading of the two established cryptocurrencies, namely bitcoin and ethereum on its platform.

-- BERNAMA