Overview
The Revolut offering is a quick and easy way to speculate on the value of BitCoin and other cryptocurrencies.
It is relatively safe but fees are high and functionality is limited.
Product
The Revolut Crypto offering is simple to use and fast to execute but expensive at a total "roundtrip" fee of 5.2%.
Cryptocurrency is held via a nominee structure with Paxos, an American company regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services.
Recourse in the event of either a Revolut or Paxos administration would be via the Revolut administrator. This is (to say the least) somewhat murky.
Fees
There are no fees to deposit funds into your Revolut account, or to withdraw them.
Fees are applied each time you buy or sell via the crypto exchange. Fees vary from time to time, plus there is a "spread" on the rates applied at the exchange. The table below summarizes our "roundtrip" test. For the test we placed £10 in the Revolut account, purchased BitCoin then immediately sold the BitCoin for Sterling.
| Date |
In |
Out |
Fee(£) |
Fee(%) |
| 5 April 2022 |
£10 |
£9.48 |
£0.52 |
5.2% |
Safety
Sterling Account
The Revolut account is an eMoney account, this is regulated by the FCA but it is NOT covered by the FSCS. While you hold your funds in Sterling in your Revolut account, your protection is in the fact that the funds should be held in a client money account.
In the event of Revolut administration, the administrators would be required to return funds to the respective clients.
Crypto Account
Cryptocurrency is held "in cold storage" by (at the time of writing) Paxos Trust Company, LLC which is regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
However as the cryptocurrency is held on your behalf by Revolut, you do not have any recourse as such to Paxos or the NYSD FS. Your only recourse in the event of a Revolut administration would be to the Revolut administrators.
It is NOT CLEAR what recourse you would have (if any) in the event of a Paxos Trust Company administration.
Recourse
As stated above, in the event of any issues with either Revolut or its exchange operator Paxos, your only recourse will be to the Revolut administrator.
Any coins that you have stored with Revolut are technically owned by Paxos, there is doubt as to what would happen in the event of a Paxos bankruptcy. It is possible that you would be an unsecured creditor.
Governance
In the UK Revolut is a limited liability company. Some of its activities are regulated by the FCA, however this DOES NOT APPLY to its cryptocurrency offering as it is an unregulated financial instrument.
As of its last published financial statement (for the year ending December 31 2020) it remains a loss-making operation dependent on its financial backers.