Digital bank Revolut wins approval to run UK cryptocurrency business
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.
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
Related topics