Luno closes EU accounts: what customers should know now the 31 August deadline has passed

Anyone still holding euros or crypto with Luno needs to act now. The exchange with South African roots is winding down its service in the affected European markets. Selling and withdrawing money to a bank account is only possible until 31 August 2026. Accounts close on 1 September, and remaining balances then attract monthly fees that rise to as much as $52 from December. The route of withdrawing crypto to your own wallet has been shut since late June. This article sets out the deadlines, the steps that remain and how to pick a successor platform with a MiCA licence.

Luno account closure: the timetable up to 1 September 2026

The wind-down has been running in stages for weeks, and the most consequential stage is already in the past. This is the timetable as Luno has communicated it to customers and as several trade publications consistently report:

• 29 June 2026: last day for crypto transfers to external wallets. Since then, crypto withdrawals have been permanently disabled.
• 31 August 2026: last day to sell holdings and withdraw the euro proceeds to a bank account.
• 1 September 2026: Luno closes accounts in the affected regions for good.
• From September 2026: a $2 monthly inactivity fee on remaining balances.
• From December 2026: an additional $50 dormancy fee, taking the total to as much as $52 a month.

The dates come from Luno's customer guidance and from consistent reporting in the trade press, including CryptoSlate (as of 8 August 2026). Luno has not publicly named the individual countries affected; its help pages refer generally to regions where service is being discontinued. If you can still log in and see those notices in your app, you are in scope.

Crypto transfers blocked since 29 June: why selling for euros is the only route left

For those affected, the most restrictive change took effect weeks ago. Since 29 June 2026 it has been impossible to move coins to an external wallet or to another exchange. Anyone who wanted to keep their bitcoin or ether had to act before that date. What remains is a single path: sell the holdings on Luno, withdraw the euro proceeds, and buy back at another provider.

That detour has side effects worth planning for. Between the sale and the repurchase you are out of the market, and the price can move either way. There are trading fees on both legs, and depending on how long you have held the coins there may be a tax effect, covered further down. The earlier you start the sale, the more buffer you keep for bank queries, verification loops or a support reply. Nobody should leave this to the last day.

Deadline 31 August 2026: how to get your money out of Luno

Step 1: check the bank account linked to Luno

Withdrawals go to a bank account in your own name registered with Luno. Check first that the IBAN on file is still correct. An outdated bank connection is the most common reason withdrawals get stuck in review queues, and time for that is exactly what the deadline does not leave.

Step 2: sell all holdings

Sell every position for euros, including small change and dust in minor tokens. Whatever is still sitting in the account as crypto on 1 September can no longer be traded by you. Mind the floor: balances below the equivalent of $10 will not be paid out, according to the available reporting, because they sit under the minimum withdrawal threshold.

Step 3: withdraw the euros and confirm receipt

Trigger the euro withdrawal and confirm the money has arrived in your bank account before the deadline passes. Anyone who misses 31 August can only reach their money through customer support afterwards and must provide a bank statement no older than three months. That works, but it is slower, and from September the fees start eating into the balance.

Fees from September 2026: $2 at first, then $52 a month on remaining Luno balances

Luno reserves the right to charge ongoing fees on balances that remain after account closure. From September 2026 that is a $2 monthly inactivity fee; from December a $50 dormancy fee comes on top, for a combined total of up to $52 a month. A residual balance of 200 euros would, at that rate, be gone in roughly four months; the arithmetic is our own, the fee levels come from the CryptoSlate and crypto.news reports of 3 August 2026. Delaying the withdrawal therefore costs twice, in waiting time and in a shrinking balance.

No MiCA licence in the ESMA register: the regulatory backdrop to Luno's EU exit

The transition period of the EU's MiCA regulation expired on 1 July 2026. Since then, anyone offering crypto services to clients in the European Economic Area needs authorisation as a crypto-asset service provider, a CASP in the regulation's jargon. The EU securities watchdog ESMA publishes the authorisations granted in a public register that anyone can consult without a login. Luno does not appear in the register file of 329 authorisations, nor in the accompanying list of firms reported as non-compliant (retrieved 8 August 2026).

Luno itself does not publicly attribute the withdrawal to regulation. The company says it wants to concentrate on its core markets in Africa and South East Asia, naming Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Indonesia and Malaysia. Both things can be true at once: without a register entry, serving EEA customers has not been permissible since July, and Luno is winding down its European business. The case joins a wider pattern, as several international platforms had already given up the European market around the MiCA cut-off. How things looked for Luno customers most recently is also documented in our Luno review, which flags the account closure explicitly.

MiCA-licensed Luno alternatives: Bitpanda, Bitvavo, Kraken and Coinbase in the register check

Anyone planning to re-enter the market after the sale should look the prospective provider up in the ESMA register first. Four widely used alternatives hold granted authorisations there (retrieved 8 August 2026):

• Bitpanda: authorised through Bitpanda GmbH in Austria (notification of 9 April 2025), with further register entries in Germany and Malta.
• Bitvavo: authorised as Bitvavo B.V. in the Netherlands (notification of 26 June 2025).
• Kraken: listed in the register through the Irish entity Payward Europe Solutions Limited (notification of 25 June 2025).
• Coinbase: authorised as Coinbase Luxembourg S.A. in Luxembourg (notification of 20 June 2025).

One detail helps when searching: the register lists the legal entity, not always the brand. Kraken appears there as Payward, and behind some apps sits a company whose name never appears on the landing page. So check the provider's legal notice against the register entry. Fees, deposit methods and savings-plan terms differ considerably between providers; our continuously maintained exchange comparison gives the overview, and if you want to filter by supervisory status specifically, the candidates are in our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges.

Tax on the forced Luno sale: holding periods and local rules to keep in view

A forced sale is, for tax purposes, an ordinary sale, and the treatment depends on where you are tax resident. In Germany, for example, disposals of privately held crypto count as private sales transactions: gains are income-tax-free once the coins have been held for more than a year, while gains on shorter holdings become taxable once all private sales gains in a calendar year together reach the 1,000 euro threshold. Selling before the year is up because of Luno's deadline forfeits that exemption, and the holding period starts from zero when you buy back elsewhere. Other member states draw the lines differently, so check your local rules.

One step follows from this in every jurisdiction and is easily forgotten: export your full transaction history from the Luno account while you still have access. After the closure on 1 September, reconstructing acquisition dates and prices becomes far harder, and you will need them for your tax return. None of this replaces individual tax advice.

Lessons from the Luno exit: choose a platform by MiCA licence, not by app polish

After the summer of 2026, the register check is in our view the most important criterion when choosing a crypto exchange, ahead of fees and user experience. The Luno case shows what awaits customers of a provider without EU authorisation: first blocked crypto transfers, then a sale deadline, and finally fees on whatever is left behind. That is no reproach to individual users, since the trajectory was hard to foresee from the outside. But it is repeatable for anyone trading on a platform that is missing from the ESMA register. The look-up takes a minute and is the only evidence that holds.

What to take away

1. Sell and withdraw before 31 August 2026. Check the bank account on file first, then sell all holdings for euros and confirm the money has arrived. After the deadline the only route is support, with a recent bank statement and fees running in the background.
2. Export your transaction history before 1 September. Save trades, dates and prices for your tax records while you can still log in. Once the account is closed, every documentation question becomes tedious.
3. Pick your next platform by register entry. The candidates with a MiCA licence are in our exchange comparison; larger balances belong in your own wallet afterwards, and we compare the devices in our hardware wallet comparison.

Disclosure: some of the providers named work with us through partner programmes. This has no bearing on the licensing assessment; every register finding in this article comes from the public ESMA file and can be reproduced from it. Luno is not a partner of ours.

(As of 8 August 2026. This article is not investment advice and not tax advice. Deadlines and fees can change; the binding information is what Luno communicates to its customers.)