Your burning questions about Revolut Crypto answered

Revolut · How to · 4 August 2020Edward Cooper

(Applies to Europe, US crypto questions coming soon)

Recently, we’ve been launching some new Crypto features, so I’ve been a little more active on Twitter than usual. I noticed the same questions cropping up again and again, and I started by replying to individual tweets… Well, that’s the fastest route to RSI and a lot of awkward questions from Nik about the exorbitant amount of time spent on social media during office hours. (I promise I’m not just posting pictures of my cat...it’s work!)

So to make sure that I address as many of those top rated questions as possible, I thought a blog post could help.

Do I own my crypto if I use Revolut?

Yes. We recently changed our terms and conditions to make sure this is the case, because we know it’s an important point for you guys. When you click buy (or sell) on any of the cryptocurrencies in Revolut, you are instructing us to buy (or sell) these currencies on your behalf in the open market. Revolut uses third party custodians to look after your crypto for you, but you own it.

“Yeah, but not your ke...” - wait, give me a second! I’ll talk about that too 😁

Is it real crypto, or is it a derivative?

It’s real crypto, it’s not a derivative. I totally understand that our solution is not for everyone. The best thing to do is check our terms and conditions to fully understand our crypto offering: when you buy crypto, Revolut goes to the market and buys crypto on your behalf (bar some small netting operations for efficiency). Someone asked recently that if they bought 1000 BTC through Revolut (baller), would it move the market? Yes it probably would, as we would go to the market to buy this amount on their behalf. Remember, our T&Cs are there to protect you as well as us, and are a legally binding contract on both sides.

Why can’t I see my trades on the blockchain? Why don’t you share any public addresses?

Exchanges have omnibus accounts, and trades on exchanges are not blockchain transactions. Actually, they’re updates to the exchange’s internal ledger, so it’s not possible to share these. As mentioned earlier, our T&Cs are also there to protect you and are a legally binding contract. We are buying and selling the crypto on your behalf on the market and are legally obligated to do so.

Not your keys, not your coins

I get it. I lost Bitcoin during some exchange hacks in the early years, so I also have a healthy mistrust of centralised solutions.

Revolut Crypto is not for everyone, and that’s fine. There are many great non-custodial solutions out there, and I use quite a few of them myself.

Of course, there are positives and negatives to both. I nearly gave myself a heart attack when a hardware wallet I was using died and I couldn’t remember where I had stored my recovery words… lost your keys, not your coins either. Luckily I found them in the end, but that was 2 hours of stress I’m never getting back. A large glass of wine was required to bring me back.

Personally, I use a mix of custodial and non custodial solutions, and with Revolut I love how quickly I can get in and out of the market. I can stack sats without even thinking about it by rounding up my spare change directly into crypto whilst spending everyday. The ability to quickly shift my crypto holdings into TSLA stock, and then out and into Gold, and then back to fiat to spend on a coffee makes it a winner for me (OK OK... sorry. Sales pitch over, I can’t help it 😉).

Wen withdrawals?

You know I can’t give away any big secrets, but I know it’s something you want. We’re putting a lot of effort into seeing if we can make this work in a safe way that regulators and partners are happy with.

Wen moon?

*engage philosophical mode* You’ll know when your personal moon is, enjoy it when it comes, and spread your wisdom to less experienced cryptonauts to give a little something back *end philosophical mode*

Final thoughts

At Revolut, we’re passionate cryptonauts who truly believe that crypto will follow the same trajectory as the personal computing and internet revolutions - but only if we make it easier and safer for everyone. While those revolutions might have been difficult to use initially (remember soldering irons? And no browsers?), a bunch of people built tools to make them easier to use, and mass adoption followed. There’s a tonne of other companies out there also doing amazing things in the space, and, to be honest, we just honoured to be doing what we can to try and help out a bit.

We’ve got loads of exciting features in the pipeline that we can’t wait to share with you, I hope to see you all on the ride.

And lastly - we need your help.

Let us know what else you’d love to see us build, and we’ll get right to it! HODL on my friends. Moon is coming. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon! *this is not investment advice, the lawyers made me say this*

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