Cape Town: TECHz – News Desk
New data from South Africa’s leading digital assets app, Luno, shows that tokenised stocks and ETFs are increasingly attracting first-time investors to the US market. The company has reached 50,000 xStocks customers since the launch of the product in August 2025. xStocks are digital representations of popular US shares and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
According to Luno, the top five most popular xStocks purchases by volume are Tesla (TSLAx), Gold ETFs (GLDx), Nvidia (NVDAx), MicroStrategy (MSTRx), and the S&P 500 ETF (SPYx). The investment mix highlights growing interest in technology companies, gold as a macroeconomic hedge, and broader market exposure through index funds.
Adoption of the investment product has grown rapidly, according to Christo de Wit, Luno’s country manager for South Africa.
Christo de Wit, Country Manager for South Africa, Luno: “xStocks customers hold a combined R200 million in tokenised equity assets on Luno. Around 15% of these investors are entirely new to Luno and came for tokenised stocks.”
Luno said the average xStocks customer made an initial investment of around R1,500 and has since accumulated an average of R6,600 in tokenised stocks across almost three positions. The company says this trend points to continued engagement from investors rather than speculative one-time trading activity. “Investors are clearly coming back, adding to their holdings and branching into new stocks over time. This kind of behaviour aligns with portfolio-building rather than one-off speculation,” says de Wit.
The demographic profile of xStocks users skews younger and predominantly male compared to South Africa’s broader investing public. Almost half of tokenised stock investors on Luno are aged 34 years and younger. Male customers account for 68% of xStocks users, reflecting strong adoption among digitally savvy investors familiar with cryptocurrency markets.
Geographically, Gauteng accounts for 42% of xStocks customers, followed by the Western Cape at 25% and KwaZulu-Natal at 13%. Luno says the distribution mirrors broader fintech and investment app adoption patterns across South Africa.
The company also reported strong cross-asset adoption among investors on the platform. Around 86% of xStocks customers also hold crypto assets on Luno, suggesting growing investor confidence in combining digital assets with traditional equity investments. Luno currently manages more than R30 billion in crypto holdings for South African customers, while tokenised stock assets have grown to R200 million.
Luno says tokenised stocks are helping address barriers that have historically limited South Africans’ access to global markets, including high foreign exchange fees, offshore investment complexities, and US trading-hour restrictions.
Christo de Wit, Country Manager for South Africa, Luno: “The uptake tells us that South African investors were ready for something better. They can wake up on a Monday morning, invest R500 in Tesla or the S&P 500 in rands, before their first cup of coffee, from their phone, just as easily as buying Bitcoin.”
