Revolut Review

Revolut recently launched support for Crypto, and after seeing it getting mentioned in various social feeds of mine, I decided to check it out. Revolut Revolut have been operating since 2015 as a pre-pay card operator offering low rates on foreign exchange currency with app support to facilitate the transactions. Based in the UK & backed by some of Europe's biggest institutional investors, the sound of a well funded & highly regarded means of buying into crypto was appealing. One of the key points they're keen to make about their support for cryptocurrency is their low transaction fees for smaller purchases. At the time of writing I believe their fee is a flat 1.5% Getting started Getting started was pretty straightforward, I downloaded the app and signed up for an account within 5 minutes. Theres an unverified limit of £200 a year which is more than enough to test the functionality of the app before committing. In order to get yourself either a physical or digital card (for Apple Pay) you need to deposit £10. This took a matter of minutes to do and I set up the digital card ready to use. In order to verify, you snap a picture of your photo ID & a picture of your face. I did this and within 20 mins my account was verified for up to £25,000 a year. Cryptocurrency So, the main reason I decided to try the app out was for this functionality, the promise that I can quickly & conveniently exchange my fiat into BTC, ETH or LTC. Immediately I'm met with a hurdle. Due to demand Revolut are restricting its use for premium members (12 month contract at £6.99) or for those who get 3 others to sign up. They have stated that in time this functionality will be available to all users. It took a little while but I managed to get my 3 signups and I was greeted with a notification to let me know it had been unlocked. And then it all sort of fell apart. Its a big sandbox. The crypto currency that you buy can only be moved within the platform. You can send BTC, ETH or LTC to another user or you can buy & sell. You Cannot transfer this currency to an exchange. That, for me is a dealbreaker. Why? After reading through the FAQs it appears that essentially they're operating a pooled cryptocurrency fund, your coins are held with everyone elses and their ledger records how many you have to move around. I suppose this is how they're able to offer lower transaction fees - the transactions might not actually happen after the first one - Just an update to the ledger. Sidenote One silver lining is that they're offering interest payments on cryptocurrency deposits, which leads me to believe that this could be a managed fund. I suppose that does help the 'new to crypto' crowd. I hope this is useful to anyone considering using Revolut, especially to those who had the same impression as I did about being able to transfer in & out. It would be a fantastic app if it allowed this and I can only hope they will rethink their position in the future. All images courtesy of revolut.com