Why can’t I send crypto?

There are a few common reasons why customers sometimes struggle to send cryptocurrency. If you’re experiencing problems with sending crypto, we’ve outlined the possible causes and solutions below.

Tip

Make sure you’ve enabled crypto sends on your account. This is disabled by default. For your security, after you’ve selected the option to enable sends, there’s a waiting period (usually 24 hours) before you can send crypto.

Sends and receives aren’t supported for some coins

Luno follows a detailed process when determining whether to support send/receives for the coins on our platform, with a central focus on customer security and experience.

We haven't enabled sends/receives for certain coins on our platform as we are not fully confident that doing so will meet our anti-fraud standards. To combat financial fraud, we use a blockchain service that helps to flag potentially fraudulent transactions, but its capabilities are less advanced for some coins (usually, but not always, coins that have recently launched and are less well-established).

You can’t send or receive FTM, NEAR, XLM, or DOT. 

We hope to introduce send/receive functionality for all coins in the future.

Invalid address

When you manually type in the wallet address or paste a mismatched receiving address, an Invalid Address error message will display for you. A specific crypto wallet address can’t receive another type of crypto – Bitcoin goes into a Bitcoin wallet, Ethereum into an Ethereum wallet, etc. Always double-check the address first. For example, you won't be able to send crypto if you’re typing or pasting an Ethereum (ETH) wallet address when sending crypto to a Bitcoin receive address.

Tip

Always input the address by copying and pasting or scanning the QR code. If you plan to send a large amount of crypto, it is also best practice to test it by sending a small portion first.

Insufficient funds

All crypto sends have an accompanying network fee which dynamically increases or decreases based on blockchain demand. The fee will always be displayed on your screen before you proceed with the transaction.

Crypto send screen on Luno

When there’s a lot of activity on a blockchain, network fees can go quite high and you might not have enough funds to cover the transaction.

Tip

When attempting to send crypto, please ensure that the funds in your crypto wallet can cover the amount you want to send and the send fee. If the amount is not enough to cover both, the confirmation screen will display a negative value and the transaction will fail. Learn more about high send fees and ways to reduce them.

Non-EIP55 compatible wallet addresses

EIP55 addresses use a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters to create a checksum, which helps detect errors and improve security. A checksum is a small error-detection function that ensures data hasn't been tampered with. It verifies the integrity and security of the data.

For safety reasons, Luno only accepts checksummed addresses. You may get an error message if you attempt to send crypto to a non-EIP55 (non-checksummed) address. Before sending crypto, check if the address has uppercase and lowercase letters.

Tip

For more information and instructions for converting an Ethereum address to be EIP55-compliant, read this article: What are EIP55 compatible addresses and why do they matter?

Locked/restricted accounts

  • You could have previously locked your account for security or other reasons. When you did so, you would have received an email from us with the subject line “We’ve locked your account as requested.” This email stipulates the date and time that your account will be automatically unlocked. You can recover your account by following a few simple steps.

  • In countries where Luno has different verificaton levels, your account could be locked because you’ve reached your deposit or withdrawal limits. You can unlock it yourself by navigating to Profile > Settings > Verification and following the prompts from there.

  • On rare occasions, Luno may place a precautionary hold on a customer’s crypto sends if we have reason to believe you are at risk. Our support team will communicate with you to help resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

Send limits

Daily, weekly or monthly send limits exist as part of our anti-financial crime measures to combat the high risk of fraud. While there are set limits that apply in each region, send limits are dynamic and tailored to you. These limits apply to crypto sends only.

Tip

View the bandwidth of limits for your region and learn more about why your send amount is limited.

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