CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 82.67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money

Digital bank Revolut wins approval to run UK cryptocurrency business

By Alara Jordan

Edited by Charlie Mellor

15:46, 29 September 2022

Revolut banking card
Revolut became Britain’s most valuable private tech company with a $33bn valuation – Photo: Shutterstock

Digital challenger bank Revolut – which began selling bitcoin (BTC), litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to its app users in 2017 – has been given the green light from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to press ahead with its cryptocurrency business in the UK.

The approval comes months after the fintech, which became Britain’s most valuable private tech company after a July funding round pushed the firms valuation to $33bn, was granted an extension to the FCA’s temporary list of companies seeking a cryptocurrency licence earlier this year.

Revolut has more than 20 million users across 36 countries and records more than 250,000 transactions a month.

BTC to USD

Launched in 2015, Revolut first forayed into the crypto sector in 2017, ahead of several of its competitors at the time.

It allowed its users to purchase the cryptocurrencies BTC, LTC and ETH via its app without the need for a cryptocurrency exchange or dedicated wallet. 

XRP/USD

2.65 Price
+0.320% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.01323

DOGE/USD

0.42 Price
+1.400% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.0020908

BTC/USD

96,927.25 Price
+0.840% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 50.00

XLM/USD

0.51 Price
-1.620% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.00257

ETH to USD

The FCA’s go ahead for Revolut’s crypto-dedicated services has been a long time coming, with the fintech giant still seeking regulatory approval for a full UK banking licence.

Earlier this year, CEO Nik Storonsky criticised the FCA over the organisations’s “slower” progress towards issuing a banking licence.

Storonsky told City AM in June: “I definitely see the process is slower compared to other regulators. We applied for 48 licences across the globe and we received 44, and three of the licences that we haven’t received are actually in the UK.”

LTC to USD

Markets in this article

BTC/USD
Bitcoin / USD
96927.25 USD
802.45 +0.840%
ETH/USD
Ethereum / USD
3727.73 USD
110.28 +3.050%
LTC/USD
Litecoin / USD
131.96 USD
-0.46 -0.350%

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Related reading

The difference between trading assets and CFDs
The main difference between CFD trading and trading assets, such as commodities and stocks, is that you don’t own the underlying asset when you trade on a CFD.
You can still benefit if the market moves in your favour, or make a loss if it moves against you. However, with traditional trading you enter a contract to exchange the legal ownership of the individual shares or the commodities for money, and you own this until you sell it again.
CFDs are leveraged products, which means that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of the CFD trade in order to open a position. But with traditional trading, you buy the assets for the full amount. In the UK, there is no stamp duty on CFD trading, but there is when you buy stocks, for example.
CFDs attract overnight costs to hold the trades (unless you use 1-1 leverage), which makes them more suited to short-term trading opportunities. Stocks and commodities are more normally bought and held for longer. You might also pay a broker commission or fees when buying and selling assets direct and you’d need somewhere to store them safely.
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