Illustrative image | South African banknotes. (Photo: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg via Getty Images) | Luno’s latest stablecoin play could bolster South Africa’s economy. (Photo: Luno) 
Luno is making another stablecoin bet, but at least its not with a gambling company this time.
The crypto exchange launched Zaru (ZAR Universal), a rand-pegged stablecoin backed by a consortium that includes (in no particular order):
🪙Sanlam Specialised Asset Management managing the reserves;
🪙Standard Bank holding the cash;
🪙EasyEquities and Lesaka providing distribution; and
🪙Moore Johannesburg auditing the whole operation monthly.
Read more: In case no one's told you, we're in a stablecoin race
Luno already has a stablecoin partnership with Super Group’s ZARSC (Supercoin). The plan is that Supercoin will eventually provide payment options for customers using Super Group’s sportsbook brand Betway.
Technical background: ZARSC (Supercoin)
Details released last year reveal that custody of ZAR Supercoin fiat currency backing reserves will be held by ABSA and ZARSC will be deployed on the Solana blockchain using the Fireblocks Tokenization Engine to mint, burn and manage the entire smart contract lifecycle. ZAR Supercoin will use Fireblocks’ wallet infrastructure for the secure custody and storage of the stablecoin.
Marius Reitz, Luno’s general manager for Europe and Africa, explains that Luno has a robust vetting processes and - in this case- requires Super Group- to provide audited proof of reserves to Luno regularly. This is standard governance practice for reputable stablecoin issuers.
The company reiterated that it follows a robust approach with regards to all the coins offered to customers, including a comprehensive selection process conducted by an expert, independent committee that evaluates digital assets and the governance process of the coins.
But moving on to Zaru ...
Not your average stablecoin play
“The big distinction with a stablecoin project is that you can’t do it yourself,” Vighnesh Patel, Luno product manager on the Zaru project, told Daily Maverick in an interview. “What we’re talking about is a network, something that can create opportunities for optimisation and efficiency – and you can’t send money to yourself.”
He’s got a point. Unlike the solo ZARSC integration, Zaru brings together partners that cover different use cases: EasyEquities for investments, Lesaka for payments, Sanlam for asset management and Luno for digital assets.
It’s the kind of partnership that makes sense when you’re trying to build infrastructure, not just list another token.
Read more: Cryptofest 2025 was oddly small but the conversations were not
The stablecoin is pegged 1:1 to the rand and fully backed by high-quality liquid assets; including cash, bank deposits and South African government bonds. Every token is backed by actual randelas sitting in a Standard Bank account, with Sanlam making sure there’s always enough liquidity for redemptions.
Unfortunately at launch it’s exclusively for institutional investors. No retail access yet – so it’s more about fixing corporate treasury headaches than giving the gardener a cross-border payment option to send money back home.
The institutional pitch
Patel was clear about where this is all going. “The digital asset space has moved squarely into the institutional space.
“It’s easier for an institution to understand the benefit of real-time settlement when they’re trying to move funds from the UK to South Africa, where (depending on who you bank with) that can sometimes take five days.”
Top 10 JSE companies with multiple entities currently shuffle money around internally via EFT transfers between different banks. Zaru could theoretically do this instantly, 24/7, even when the banking rails are shut down for the weekend.
“The funds never leave the bank account – it trades digitally between wallets and that’s why there’s no need to move capital through the SWIFT system or the banking rails,” Patel explained.
It’s a compelling pitch for treasury teams. Whether it actually works at scale remains to be seen.
The sovereignty argument
This journalist has been publicly sceptical about stablecoins. But Patel made an argument that made a good case:
“Is it in our interest as Africa, as South Africa, where this technology already exists, to allow other currency-pegged stablecoins to facilitate that gap that’s being left by a local one? Do we want to abdicate sovereignty of that space?”
He’s talking about USDT and USDC dominance – foreign stablecoins that suck value out of South African markets and park it in US Treasury bills or money market funds overseas. Every rand converted to a dollar-backed stablecoin is capital leaving our financial system.
Zaru reserves stay in South Africa. The value stays local. The asset can move globally, but the economic benefit accrues here.
“If you look at many global stablecoins, they are regulated in multiple other jurisdictions – the funds could be held in Hong Kong or something. With Zaru, it’s here, with a South African bank, on the actual reserves.”
The argument plays well with regulators worried about capital flight.
An accidental infrastructure play
Here’s where it gets interesting for National Treasury. Because the reserves include South African government bonds, every token minted is, in effect, creating demand for sovereign debt.
In December 2025, Treasury raised R11.795-billion through Infrastructure and Development Finance Bonds specifically to fund the government’s Budget Facility for Infrastructure. Strong demand saw bids exceed R26-billion – a 2.2-times subscription rate.
Those bonds are now eligible backing assets for Zaru reserves. Which means as the stablecoin scales, it could create a secondary source of demand for government infrastructure bonds.
Sanlam’s Jacques le Roux called it an opportunity to “significantly contribute to financial inclusion” by connecting traditional financial markets to blockchain. That’s optimistic corporate speak, but the infrastructure connection is real.
The regional trade angle
Patel also went off on the importance of the rand in southern Africa – something he says citizens don’t fully appreciate.
“Within southern Africa, the rand is used in Namibia in a different way, is a reserve asset in Lesotho in another way… If we just look to recently, the G20 focus of our country on intra-Africa trade – you need to be thinking on your border. We need to be thinking about our neighbours with whom we want to work every day and create that financial infrastructure.”
The rand is the 18th-most-traded currency globally. It’s widely accepted across the region. But current payment rails are expensive and slow for cross-border transactions. A rand stablecoin could theoretically reduce friction for regional trade settlements.
It’s ambitious. But then again, so was Luno entering the South African market more than a decade ago.
The unanswered questions
For all the swagger, there are still big questions Patel couldn’t or wouldn’t answer.
Who earns the interest on reserves?
Right now, it’s going into maintaining liquidity and ensuring instant redemptions – not back to token holders.
That’s inconsistent with how global stablecoins like Tether operate, where interest income is a massive profit centre. Patel says they’re in conversations with regulators about whether returning yield to holders would be permitted.
How do you convince global liquidity providers to swap USDC for Zaru?
Patel was cryptic: “There will be more news coming out in time about partnerships in that space.”
And what happens when the first institutional client tries to redeem R100-million in Zaru during a liquidity crunch?
The monthly attestations from Moore Johannesburg are nice, but proof of reserves is only as good as the last audit.
Will this one stick?
Luno has now integrated two rand stablecoins. ZARSC is basically a casino chip. Zaru, by contrast, is an ambitious attempt to build institutional-grade payment infrastructure that keeps capital in South Africa while enabling global movement.
/file/attachments/2987/Luno-Headshots-58_677315.jpg "Marius Reitz, Luno’s general manager for Europe and Africa. (Photo: Supplied)")
Marius Reitz, Luno’s general manager for Europe and Africa, told Daily Maverick the exchange follows “a comprehensive selection process conducted by an expert, independent committee that evaluates digital assets and the governance process of the coins.”
He also said that external issuers must “provide audited proof of reserves to Luno regularly”.
Translation: they’re trying not to get burned by another Terra-style implosion.
“Issuing or listing reputable stablecoins will form part of Luno’s long-term global strategy,” Reitz said. So expect more of these partnerships, not fewer.
Read more: Gold is token reserve in BRICS de-dollarisation push
Whether Zaru succeeds will depend on institutional adoption. Can they actually convince JSE-listed corporates and international treasury teams to trust a blockchain-based settlement layer? Can they build enough liquidity pools to make global conversions seamless?
And perhaps most importantly: can they navigate South African regulatory uncertainty without getting kneecapped?
If we’re going to have rand-pegged stablecoins operating in our market, they might as well keep the reserves here and support local infrastructure funding. DM