Revolut is coming to the smartphone near you with an array of cryptocurrencies before tax day. Having just raised $500 million on a $5.5 billion valuation, Revolut is one of the biggest fintechs in Europe. Revolut is a neobank: simply, a bank without the expense and convenience of physical branches or the headache of licensing.
Revolut is already well-established in Europe. On its home soil, it allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and (XRP) for one of 29 fiat currencies. Revolut expects to start offering the same service to its clients in all 50 U.S. states.
Cointelegraph sat down with Dan Westgarth, general manager for North America to discuss Revolut’s offering in the U.S.
Assessing the crypto landscape in the U.S., Dan believes that Square is its biggest competitor. Unlike Square’s Cash App which offers Bitcoin (BTC) only, Revolut has four other major cryptocurrencies on the menu.
Cryptocurrency is a major source of revenue for the company and an important driver of user acquisition.
Raising $500 million — investors like crypto
As to whether the Revolut’s investors perceived its exposure to cryptocurrency as risk, Dan replied:
“Our investors like crypto, they don’t mind the risk as long as it is well-managed, and we are good at it.”
Asset-backed tokens are the future
Dan believes that asset-backed tokens hold a great deal of potential:
“It’s easy to buy stocks or bonds, even cryptocurrency, but for an unsophisticated investor to gain exposure to commodities is almost impossible. So, if there was a token pegged to diamonds or gold, this could be very appealing.”
Ripple holds no value for Revolut
“Ripple has approached us on several occasions with the offer of their services, at this point, we don’t see any value in it. We are very much a problem-driven company, they are not solving any of our current problems,” Westgarth concluded.
Despite the longest bear market in history, U.S. crypto space keeps attracting new entrants. The improvements to crypto infrastructure should usher the next wave of adoption in the country.
