Revolut Will Make Crypto Available in 50 States

Revolut is coming to the smartphone near you with an array of cryptocurrencies. 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 the United States. While Revolut initially told Cointelegraph that it would be making cryptocurrency transactions available in all 50 states, a spokesperson later clarified that there is currently not a definitive roadmap or timeline to gaining approval through the myriad state-level regulatory processes.

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.”