UK Fintech Firm Revolut Brings Bitcoin, Ether Trading to US Customers

Revolut customers in the U.S. can now buy, hold and sell BTC and ETH on the digital bank’s crypto platform, thanks to a partnership with Paxos.

AccessTimeIconJul 15, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. UTC
Updated May 15, 2023 at 1:32 p.m. UTC

Presented By Icon

Election 2024 coverage presented by

Stand with crypto

Revolut customers in 49 U.S. states can now buy, hold and sell bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) on the digital bank’s crypto platform. 

The British fintech firm entered the U.S. in March and waited until it had already established its core products in the country before launching bitcoin services as well, said Revolut crypto chief Edward Cooper.

Revolut gained the regulatory permission to do this by partnering with New York-based trust company Paxos.

Paxos also announced Wednesday it was rolling out a new brokerage API service, allowing clients to provide buy, sell, send and hold options. Through the Paxos Crypto Brokerage, the firm acts as a custodian for its clients, such as Revolut, and manages the regulatory compliance aspects.

"What's exciting about it is really lowering the barrier of entry for firms to get into crypto," said Paxos CEO Chad Cascarilla. "You can plug into our APIs and we'll provide you the regulatory ability and the technological capabilities to offer crypto for buying or selling."

In every U.S. state except Tennessee, Revolut allows customers to round up their transactions, converting spare change into crypto. Revolut also gives customers the ability to convert BTC and ETH among 28 global currencies, with plans to branch out into other cryptos in the future. 

In Europe, Revolut supports litecoin (LTC), bitcoin cash (BCH) and XRP. The company charges 2.5% for every crypto transaction that standard customers make and 1.5% for premium costumers. With around a million customers in Europe transacting in crypto, Revolut crypto arm is a “profit center” for the bank, Cooper said. 

The company’s next targets are in the Asia-Pacific region: Australia, Singapore and Japan, he added.

“We’ll launch the core product first and then see what steps we need to make to launch the crypto product,” Cooper said. “We’ll probably be fastest to market in the Australian market, so I’d imagine Crypto Australia is next.”

Unrelated to its expansion into the U.S., the bank recently changed ownership rules for crypto, making users the legal owners of their own coins. Revolut is also suspending the ability to make crypto card payments in Europe on July 27 and isn’t introducing the feature in the U.S. 

“We have got some feedback from users in Europe that they were spending and weren’t expecting for their crypto balances to be spent,” said Cooper. “We want to make that better. … We’ll launch it and probably have crypto-specific cards.”

Nikhilesh De contributed reporting.

Disclosure

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information have been updated.

CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of the Bullish group, which owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish group equity-based compensation. Bullish was incubated by technology investor Block.one.


Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk's longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.



Read more about