September 3, 2020
Revolut, the bank that lets its customers buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies, has announced that its US customers can now use Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. This indicates that US customers can now buy, sell, or hold four cryptocurrencies; the others are Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin are mutually Bitcoin spinoffs. The seventh-largest coin by market capitalization, Bitcoin Cash, is identical to Bitcoin, not counting its block size, which is eight times larger. While the ninth-largest coin by market cap, Litecoin, is also similar to Bitcoin, their main differences consist of a different hashing algorithm and block transaction times.
This London-based bank, Revolut, is a challenger bank meaning that it tries to beat regular retail banks in their own forte. This means a shiny app, lower currency conversion fees, and the ability to create new debit cards at a button’s press.
Being very popular, Revolut disclosed in the most recent financial statement, published last August 12, that it holds £2.2 billion in fiat holdings. In February this year, the bank raised $500 million in a funding round.
In December 2017, Revolut started offering crypto to its European customers and brought crypto trading to its US customers in July; it also launched its credit card in the US last March this year.
Revolut also supports Stellar and XRP for European customers.
Revolut’s crypto offering has a few catches in both Europe and in the US. The main caution is that the customers don’t have custody over the Bitcoin that they buy, but Revolut handles it on their behalf. Consequently, a customer can only send cryptocurrencies to other Revolut users.
This indicates that a person cannot transfer it to another wallet or buy ETH to use decentralized finance protocols, such as non-custodial lending protocols or synthetic stocks.
It also means that you can only sell it back to Revolut; you can’t trade it, for instance, on Binance. In July, a spokesperson told Mashable that these services are “a focus for the product team going forward.”
It also notes that a customer can only sell it back to Revolut; one cannot sell it to Binance. In July, a spokesperson indicated that these services are “a focus for the product team going forward.”
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